YOLO Mode

How YOLO Mode Works

Behind the scenes, YOLO mode follows a sophisticated process:

1. Preparation

   • Verifies that your working tree is clean to avoid losing uncommitted changes
   • Identifies the commits to process based on your filtering criteria
   • Extracts the diff content for each commit

2. AI Analysis

   • For each commit, sends the code diff to the AI model
   • Uses a specialized prompt that instructs the AI to:
     • Analyze what changes were made
     • Determine the purpose behind the changes
     • Identify the key components affected
     • Understand technical implications

3. Message Generation

   • Generates clear, descriptive commit messages
   • Structures messages with:
     • A concise but informative summary line
     • Detailed body explaining the changes
     • Rationale for the changes when context is available
   • Optionally adds appropriate emojis based on the content type

4. Git History Rewriting

   • Uses Git's interactive rebase to modify commit messages
   • Preserves all commit content and authorship information
   • Maintains the same commit sequence and relationships

5. Results Presentation

   • Shows before/after comparison for each message
   • Provides guidance on pushing updated history

Before & After Examples

When to Use YOLO Mode

YOLO mode is particularly valuable for:

• Legacy Projects: Improving historical documentation
• Before Public Release: Cleaning up commit history before open-sourcing
• Code Reviews: Making the review process more efficient with better context
• Knowledge Transfer: Helping new team members understand project history
• Documentation: Creating better release notes from commit logs

Command Options in Detail

commitstudio yolo [options]
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Basic Options

• -p, --path <path>: Path to the git repository (default: current directory)
• -c, --commits <number>: Number of commits to analyze (default: last 5)
• -b, --branch <branch>: Branch to analyze (default: current branch)

Filtering Options

• --since <date>: Only analyze commits after this date (e.g., "2023-01-01")
• --author <email>: Only analyze commits by this author
• --include-merge: Include merge commits in the analysis (default: excluded)

Styling Options

• --emoji: Add contextually appropriate emojis to commit messages (default: on)
• --serious: Generate professional messages without emojis
• --prefix <text>: Add a custom prefix to each commit message

Execution Options

• --dry-run: Preview changes without modifying Git history
• --verbose: Show detailed logs during processing
• --interactive: Confirm each message change individually

How AI Generates Better Messages

The AI analyzes several aspects of your commit to generate improved messages:

1. Code Diff Analysis

   • Identifies files modified, added, or deleted
   • Examines specific code changes and patterns
   • Recognizes language-specific constructs and features

2. Commit Type Detection

   • Feature additions
   • Bug fixes
   • Performance improvements
   • Refactoring
   • Documentation changes
   • Test additions

3. Technical Context Inference

   • Component relationships
   • Architectural patterns
   • Common programming idioms
   • Platform-specific considerations

4. Message Formatting Best Practices

   • Follows the 50/72 rule (50 char title, 72 char body lines)
   • Uses imperative present tense
   • Starts with a clear action verb
   • Provides supporting details in the body

Detailed Examples

Basic Usage

# Rewrite the last 5 commit messages with emojis
commitstudio yolo
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Terminal output:

✓ Repository detected: username/project-name
✓ Working tree is clean
✓ Analyzing commits for rewriting...
✓ Generating improved commit messages...

1. Before: "fix login bug"
   After:  "🐛 Fix user authentication timeout in login form"

2. Before: "add feature"
   After:  "✨ Add multi-factor authentication with email verification"

3. Before: "cleanup"
   After:  "♻️ Remove deprecated authentication methods and refactor auth flow"

4. Before: "css updates"
   After:  "💄 Update login form styling with responsive design and dark mode support"

5. Before: "lint fix"
   After:  "🧹 Fix ESLint warnings in authentication components"

? Apply these changes to your commit history? (Y/n) y
✓ Successfully rewrote commit messages!

Remember: You'll need to force push these changes with:
git push --force-with-lease
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Advanced Usage

# Rewrite messages since January 1st by a specific author, without emojis
commitstudio yolo --since "2023-01-01" --author "dev@example.com" --serious --dry-run
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Important Cautions

Git History Rewriting Considerations

YOLO mode uses git rebase -i to rewrite commit messages, which changes commit hashes. This means:

1. Clean Working Tree Required: You must have a clean working tree (no uncommitted changes) before running YOLO mode. CommitStudio will check this and refuse to proceed if changes are detected.

2. Local-Only By Default: Changes are applied to your local repository only. You must explicitly push them to share with others.

3. Force Push Required: After running YOLO mode, you'll need to use git push --force-with-lease to update remote branches. Regular pushes will be rejected.

4. Collaboration Impact: History rewriting can cause problems for collaborators who have based work on the original commits. Best practices:

   • Only use on personal/feature branches
   • Communicate with your team when using on shared branches
   • Consider creating a backup branch before proceeding

5. CI/CD Considerations: History rewrites may trigger new CI/CD runs for the same code

Integration with Development Workflow

YOLO mode integrates best with these workflows:

1. Feature Branch Cleanup:

   • Develop on a feature branch
   • Before creating a PR, run YOLO mode
   • Force push the improved history
   • Create a clean, professional PR

2. Personal Repository Management:

   • Run periodically on your repositories
   • Creates a cleaner project history
   • Makes release notes generation easier

3. Pre-Tag Cleanup:

   • Before creating version tags
   • Ensures release history is professional
   • Improves documentation for releases

Related Topics

• Standard Mode - Learn about CommitStudio's main analysis mode
• Configuration Options - Customize AI models for better messages
• Git Workflows - Integrate CommitStudio into your workflow