Commits

Branches

Use	Form
Feature work	feature/<short-slug>
Bug fix tied to an issue	fix/<NN>-<short-slug> (NN = issue number)
Codex / agent branches	codex/<slug>
Release / deploy	bot-owned — never push manually

Branch from main, not development (no development branch in this repo). Keep one branch focused on one change. If you find yourself fixing two unrelated things, that's two branches.

Commit messages — Conventional Commits

<type>(<scope>): <imperative subject, lowercase, no trailing period>

<optional body — explain *why*, not *what*. Wrap at ~72 cols.>

Types observed in history: feat, fix, chore, docs, test, perf. The repo doesn't use refactor, style, or ci as types — ci is a scope.

Scopes (use one of these when it fits; invent sparingly):

Layer	Scopes
Backend domain	api, auth, oidc, db, metadata, indexer, downloader, importer, recommender, scheduler, notifier, series, author, abs, calibre, telemetry, opds, httpsec
Cross-cutting	ci, release, deploy, lint, deps / deps-dev, migrate, sync, scanner, search
Other	test, docs, web

Issue link in the subject: append (#NN) — e.g. fix(indexer): strip possessive author prefix from title before relevance matching (#446).

Reserved: chore(deploy): promote bindery to vX.Y.Z [skip ci] is bot-only. Never include [skip ci] in human or agent commits — it bypasses CI and CI is the gate.

Subject examples from real history:

• feat(oidc): test discovery button surfaces IdP errors before login (#460)
• fix(recommender): don't gate author-new / series / genre-popular on ratings count
• perf(author): parallelize author work discovery and searches
• test(downloader): cover download client edge-case matrix (#451)
• docs(series): document enhanced hardcover series workflow

Documentation-update gate

Before staging the commit, walk the diff and update the matching docs in the same commit (or at minimum the same PR — never a follow-up).

If your diff touches…	Update…
Env vars, config, startup flags, upgrade path	docs/DEPLOYMENT.md
Auth modes / OIDC / proxy auth	docs/auth-multiuser.md, docs/auth-oidc.md, docs/auth-proxy.md, docs/troubleshooting-auth.md as applicable
ABS import flow	docs/abs_import.md (+ docs/ABS-Import-Wiki.md for user-facing changes)
Hardcover / series feature	docs/Hardcover-Series-Wiki.md
Upgrade-from-v1 path	docs/upgrade-v2.md
Multi-user behaviour	docs/multi-user.md
Feature surface advertised at top level	README.md
Helm chart values, env, image config	charts/bindery/values.yaml
New exported Go symbol with non-obvious behaviour	godoc comment on the symbol
Agent process / lifecycle / skill triggers	AGENTS.md (only when the agent contract genuinely changes — don't routinely touch)

Rule of thumb: the entire docs/ directory and README.md are maintained at every commit — they should never lag behind the code. AGENTS.md is updated only when contributor / agent process actually shifts. CONTRIBUTING.md is human-maintained — don't auto-edit unless the user asks.

Pure refactors with no behaviour change require no doc update.

Out of scope (release-time only)

CHANGELOG.md sections are authored at tag/deploy time, not at commit time. Don't add an [Unreleased] entry; don't modify versioned sections. The tag-release skill covers CHANGELOG authoring when cutting ## [vX.Y.Z].

Don't

• Don't include [skip ci] in human or agent commits.
• Don't --amend after a hook failure — the commit didn't happen, so amend modifies the previous one. Re-stage and create a new commit.