Empty Description After Colon
Why an empty description fails Conventional Commits validation. The description after the colon separator must contain meaningful text.
Detailed Explanation
The Non-Empty Description Rule
A Conventional Commit message requires a non-empty description after the : separator. The description is the most important part of the commit message — it tells readers what the commit does.
Invalid Example
feat:
or
fix(auth):
Both of these have an empty description. Even though the type and separator are correct, the commit message is incomplete without a description.
Valid Examples
feat: add dark mode toggle
fix(auth): prevent session hijacking via expired tokens
refactor: extract validation logic into shared utility
Writing Effective Descriptions
Follow these guidelines for good descriptions:
- Use imperative mood: "add", "fix", "update", not "added", "fixes", "updating."
- Start with lowercase: "add feature" not "Add feature."
- No trailing period: "add feature" not "add feature."
- Be specific: "fix null pointer in user lookup" is better than "fix bug."
- Keep it short: Aim for under 50 characters for the description part (the full subject line should be under 72 characters).
Why Tools Reject Empty Descriptions
Changelog generators use the description as the bullet-point text in the generated changelog. An empty description produces meaningless changelog entries. Version bumpers need the description to determine if the commit is meaningful enough to trigger a release. CI linters will reject the commit to prevent these issues.
Common Causes
- Committing in a rush with
git commit -m "feat:" - IDE commit dialog auto-filling the type but the developer forgetting to add a description.
- Copy-pasting a template and forgetting to fill in the description.
Use Case
The empty description check prevents meaningless commit messages from entering the repository. It ensures every commit has a clear summary, which is essential for readable Git history, useful changelogs, and effective code review.