AI Commits, Joute's review

The essentials in 20 seconds

Open-source CLI that generates Conventional Commits messages from your git diff
Installs in 30 seconds, works with your OpenAI or Anthropic key
Pricing: free (you pay the API tokens, very little)
Who it's for: every developer who wants clean commits effortlessly

Verdict: A micro-tool that does one thing well. Essential if you hate writing commit messages.

What is AI Commits

AI Commits is an open-source command-line tool. You make your code changes, you stage your files with git add, and you run aicommits instead of git commit. The tool sends your diff to the model of your choice and generates a Conventional Commits-formatted commit message.

It's a popular GitHub project with tens of thousands of stars. Simple, focused, no bloat.

Strengths

One role, well executed

AI Commits doesn't try to be a code assistant, an agent or a platform. It generates commit messages. That's all. This restraint is a strength.

Conventional Commits by default

The generated format follows the Conventional Commits standard: feat:, fix:, refactor:, etc. Compatible with automatic changelogs and semantic-release.

BYOK, zero subscription

You plug in your OpenAI or Anthropic key. The real cost is negligible: a few cents per day for an active developer.

Limits

Depends on diff quality

If your diff is a chaos of 50 unrelated files, the generated message will be vague. The tool can't guess your intent if the commit isn't atomic.

No project context

AI Commits sees the diff, not the history, not the codebase. For very specific projects, the message can lack domain precision.

Pricing

Free. MIT open source.
You pay the API tokens: count less than $0.01 per commit with GPT-4o Mini.

Alternatives

GitHub Copilot offers commit message generation in VS Code and JetBrains
Gitdoc for automatic commits in VS Code
Cursor and Windsurf have built-in commit suggestions

Verdict

If you still write commit messages like "fix" or "wip", AI Commits takes 30 seconds to install and saves you hundreds. ROI is immediate.

FAQ

How do you install AI Commits?

npm install -g aicommits, then aicommits config set OPENAI_KEY=your_key. Then aicommits in your repo.

Which models are supported?

OpenAI by default. Via configuration: Anthropic, local Ollama, and other OpenAI API-compatible models.

Is it compatible with git hooks?

Yes. You can configure AI Commits as a prepare-commit-msg hook for transparent integration.

Is the source code sent to the LLM?

Only the staged diff, not your entire repo. Stay attentive if you work on sensitive proprietary code.

AI Commits is open source and free. Joute does not earn a commission on this tool. Learn more about our affiliation policy.