I really wish git would have a built-in category system so that I can automatically generate changelog headings (features, tests, etc...) without sacrificing the legibility of commit messages. Git clients could display this information alongside the message (think of how Github displays the short commit hash).
I have never seen it work in a team of 2+. People mix up what each prefix means. Hell, I've seen someone "use" it but only ever use "feat:" even for typo fixes. I ended up rewriting his entire git history to strip all "feat:" instances from the commit message since they were just noise.
Basically the only time I've seen it work is when all the following is true:
- You're on a solo project
- You commit a lot
- You're very consistent with your prefixing
- You want to use those prefixes to generate changelogs.
… then it's useful. Otherwise, it's noise.
That said if you and your friends are happy users of it, I'm glad. I suspect that if you have a small team that knows each other well enough, that is a bit of an extension of a one-person project and it can still remain. I personally have seen the system crumble enough times with even one single user, not to trust it in the hands of two at once.
Well yeah that's exactly this. Tough I've got to admit that it doesn't work that well as we'd like regarding external pull requests since contributors do not all read our commit guidelines.