lazycommit

A CLI that writes your git commit messages for you with AI using Groq. Never write a commit message again.

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Setup

The minimum supported version of Node.js is v18. Check your Node.js version with node --version.

1. Install lazycommit:

   npm install -g lazycommitt

Install via Homebrew (macOS)

brew install lazycommit

Upgrade:

brew upgrade lazycommit

2. Retrieve your API key from Groq Console

   Note: If you haven't already, you'll have to create an account and get your API key.

3. Set the key so lazycommit can use it:

   lazycommit config set GROQ_API_KEY=<your token>

   This will create a .lazycommit file in your home directory.

Upgrading

Check the installed version with:

lazycommit --version

If it's not the latest version, run:

npm update -g lazycommitt

Usage

CLI mode

You can call lazycommit directly to generate a commit message for your staged changes:

git add <files...>
lazycommit

lazycommit passes down unknown flags to git commit, so you can pass in commit flags.

For example, you can stage all changes in tracked files as you commit:

lazycommit --all # or -a

👉 Tip: Use the lzc alias if lazycommit is too long for you.

Generate multiple recommendations

Sometimes the recommended commit message isn't the best so you want it to generate a few to pick from. You can generate multiple commit messages at once by passing in the --generate <i> flag, where 'i' is the number of generated messages:

lazycommit --generate <i> # or -g <i>

Warning: this uses more tokens, meaning it costs more.

Generating Conventional Commits

If you'd like to generate Conventional Commits, you can use the --type flag followed by conventional. This will prompt lazycommit to format the commit message according to the Conventional Commits specification:

lazycommit --type conventional # or -t conventional

This feature can be useful if your project follows the Conventional Commits standard or if you're using tools that rely on this commit format.

Review, edit, and confirm messages

Lazycommit now lets you review the generated message, optionally edit it, and then confirm before it is committed.

• You'll see a menu: Use as-is, Edit, or Cancel
• If you choose Use as-is, it commits immediately without additional prompts
• If you choose Edit, you can modify the message; then you'll be asked to confirm the final message before committing

Example (single commit):

git add .
lazycommit
# Review generated commit message:
#   feat: add lazycommit command
# → Choose "Use as-is" to commit immediately
# → Or choose "Edit" to modify, then confirm the final message before commit

Exclude files from analysis

You can exclude specific files from AI analysis using the --exclude flag:

lazycommit --exclude package-lock.json --exclude dist/

Handling large diffs

For large commits with many files, lazycommit automatically stays within API limits and generates relevant commit messages:

• Smart summarization: Uses git diff --cached --numstat to create compact summaries of all changes
• Context snippets: Includes truncated diff snippets from top changed files for better context
• Token-safe processing: Keeps prompts small while maintaining accuracy for 20+ file changes
• Single commit: Always generates one commit message, no matter how many files are staged
• Enhanced analysis: Uses improved prompts and smart truncation for better commit message quality

Git hook

You can also integrate lazycommit with Git via the prepare-commit-msg hook. This lets you use Git like you normally would, and edit the commit message before committing. The hook uses the same enhanced analysis and quality improvements as the CLI mode.

Install

In the Git repository you want to install the hook in:

lazycommit hook install

Uninstall

In the Git repository you want to uninstall the hook from:

lazycommit hook uninstall

Usage

1. Stage your files and commit:

   git add <files...>
   git commit # Only generates a message when it's not passed in

   If you ever want to write your own message instead of generating one, you can simply pass one in: git commit -m "My message"

2. Lazycommit will generate a high-quality commit message using the same enhanced analysis as the CLI mode and pass it back to Git. Git will open it with the configured editor for you to review/edit it.

3. Save and close the editor to commit!

Configuration

Reading a configuration value

To retrieve a configuration option, use the command:

lazycommit config get <key>

For example, to retrieve the API key, you can use:

lazycommit config get GROQ_API_KEY

You can also retrieve multiple configuration options at once by separating them with spaces:

lazycommit config get GROQ_API_KEY generate

Setting a configuration value

To set a configuration option, use the command:

lazycommit config set <key>=<value>

For example, to set the API key, you can use:

lazycommit config set GROQ_API_KEY=<your-api-key>

You can also set multiple configuration options at once by separating them with spaces, like

lazycommit config set GROQ_API_KEY=<your-api-key> generate=3 locale=en

Options

GROQ_API_KEY

Required

The Groq API key. You can retrieve it from Groq Console.

locale

Default: en

The locale to use for the generated commit messages. Consult the list of codes in: https://wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_639-1_codes.

generate

Default: 1

The number of commit messages to generate to pick from.

Note, this will use more tokens as it generates more results.

proxy

Set a HTTP/HTTPS proxy to use for requests.

To clear the proxy option, you can use the command (note the empty value after the equals sign):

lazycommit config set proxy=

model

Default: openai/gpt-oss-20b

The Groq model to use for generating commit messages. Available models include:

• openai/gpt-oss-20b (default) - Fast, efficient for conventional commits

For conventional commit generation, the 8B instant model provides the best balance of speed and quality.

timeout

The timeout for network requests to the Groq API in milliseconds.

Default: 10000 (10 seconds)

lazycommit config set timeout=20000 # 20s

max-length

The maximum character length of the generated commit message.

Default: 100

lazycommit config set max-length=150

type

Default: "" (Empty string)

The type of commit message to generate. Set this to "conventional" to generate commit messages that follow the Conventional Commits specification:

lazycommit config set type=conventional

You can clear this option by setting it to an empty string:

lazycommit config set type=

How it works

This CLI tool runs git diff to grab all your latest code changes, sends them to Groq's AI models, then returns the AI generated commit message.

The tool uses Groq's fast inference API to provide quick and accurate commit message suggestions based on your code changes.

Large diff handling

For large commits that exceed API token limits, lazycommit automatically:

1. Detects large/many-file diffs and switches to enhanced analysis mode
2. Creates compact summaries using git diff --cached --numstat to capture all changes efficiently
3. Includes context snippets from the most changed files to provide semantic context
4. Generates a single commit message that accurately reflects all changes without hitting API limits
5. Smart truncation preserves sentence structure and meaning when messages approach length limits
6. Enhanced prompts provide better context for AI to generate complete, professional commit messages

This ensures you can commit large changes (like new features, refactoring, or initial project setup) without hitting API limits, while maintaining accuracy, relevance, and high-quality commit messages.

Troubleshooting

"Request too large" error (413)

If you get a 413 error, your diff is too large for the API. Try these solutions:

1. Exclude build artifacts:

   lazycommit --exclude "dist/**" --exclude "node_modules/**" --exclude ".next/**"

2. Use a different model:

   lazycommit config set model "llama-3.1-70b-versatile"

3. Commit in smaller batches:

   git add src/  # Stage only source files
   lazycommit
   git add docs/ # Then stage documentation
   lazycommit

No commit messages generated

• Check your API key: lazycommit config get GROQ_API_KEY
• Verify you have staged changes: git status
• Try excluding large files or using a different model

Slow performance with large diffs

• Use the GPT-OSS-20B model (default): lazycommit config set model "openai/gpt-oss-20b"
• Exclude unnecessary files: lazycommit --exclude "*.log" --exclude "*.tmp"
• Use the built-in large diff handling for better context and accuracy
• Lower generate count: lazycommit config set generate=1 (default)
• Reduce timeout: lazycommit config set timeout=5000 for faster failures

Why Groq?

• Fast: Groq provides ultra-fast inference speeds, especially with the 8B instant model
• Cost-effective: More affordable than traditional AI APIs
• Open source models: Uses leading open-source language models
• Reliable: High uptime and consistent performance
• Optimized for commits: The 8B instant model is perfectly sized for conventional commit generation

Maintainers

• Kartik Labhshetwar: @KartikLabhshetwar

Contributing

If you want to help fix a bug or implement a feature in Issues, checkout the Contribution Guide to learn how to setup and test the project.

License

This project is licensed under the Apache-2.0 License - see the LICENSE file for details.