Commit checklists
#bookmarkandrew-quinn.me. "Perfect Commit Checklists". Archived. Retrieved April 16, 2025.
Simon Willison’s post, “The Perfect Commit”, is one of my favorite posts to reference when anything I’m starting to work on gets large enough that I can’t keep the full context in my head. I decided to distill it down to a fast, interactive checklist that you and I can both use to ensure we did everything “by the book” (or, if we’re not doing it by the book, to make sure we can at least explain to ourselves why not!).
- Does the commit contain a single, focused change?
- Are there tests included that demonstrate the implementation works?
- Has the documentation been updated to reflect the changes made?
- Is there a link to an issue thread providing context?
- Is the commit easily reviewable and revertible?
- Is the commit deployable immediately if it were to be merged into the main branch?