Commit Templates

Customize the release commit title and body with placeholders, and take advantage of smart defaults in independent monorepo mode.

When Relizy bumps versions, it creates a single release commit containing the version changes and the updated changelogs. The title of that commit is controlled by templates.commitMessage, and you can optionally populate the body with templates.commitBody.

Why a separate body?

In independent monorepos, the legacy single-line title (chore(release): bump version to {{newVersion}} where {{newVersion}} expands to the full list of name@version pairs) can quickly exceed commitlint header-max-length limits once a release touches many packages:

chore(release): bump version to @scope/[email protected], @scope/[email protected], @scope/[email protected], …

Relizy now keeps titles short by default in independent mode and pushes the full list into the commit body.

Smart defaults

Defaults are resolved based on monorepo.versionMode:

Version mode	Default commitMessage	Default commitBody
unified / selective	chore(release): bump version to {{newVersion}}	(none)
independent	chore(release): bump {{packageCount}} packages	{{packageList}}

If you set either commitMessage or commitBody yourself, your value is preserved — Relizy only fills in undefined fields.

templates.commitMessage

• Config key: templates.commitMessage
• Type: string

The commit title. Must stay within your commitlint header-max-length when using linting (typically 72 or 100 characters).

templates.commitBody

• Config key: templates.commitBody
• Type: string | undefined

Optional commit body. When defined, it is passed to git commit as a second -m argument, producing a proper commit body (blank line separator handled by git).

Available placeholders

Both commitMessage and commitBody support the same placeholders:

Placeholder	Description	Example
{{newVersion}}	In independent mode, comma-separated name@version list. In other modes, the new root version.	1.2.0 or @scope/[email protected], @scope/[email protected]
{{rootVersion}}	Version from the root package.json. Useful in independent mode where {{newVersion}} is a list.	1.2.0
{{packageCount}}	Number of packages bumped in this release.	7
{{packageNames}}	Comma-separated list of bumped package names.	@scope/a, @scope/b
{{packageList}}	Comma-separated list of bumped name@version.	@scope/[email protected], @scope/[email protected]

In non-monorepo and unified/selective setups, {{packageCount}}, {{packageNames}}, and {{packageList}} still work and reflect the bumped packages resolved for that release.

Examples

Short title with a detailed body (independent mode default)

import { defineConfig } from 'relizy'

export default defineConfig({
  monorepo: { versionMode: 'independent', packages: ['packages/*'] },
  // Equivalent to the built-in default for independent mode:
  templates: {
    commitMessage: 'chore(release): bump {{packageCount}} packages',
    commitBody: '{{packageList}}',
  },
})

Produces:

chore(release): bump 3 packages

@scope/[email protected], @scope/[email protected], @scope/[email protected]

Include the root version in the title

import { defineConfig } from 'relizy'

export default defineConfig({
  monorepo: { versionMode: 'independent', packages: ['packages/*'] },
  templates: {
    commitMessage: 'chore(release): release {{rootVersion}} ({{packageCount}} packages)',
    commitBody: '{{packageList}}',
  },
})

Opt out of the body

Set commitBody to an empty string to force an empty body, or simply override commitMessage and leave commitBody unset if you want to rely entirely on the title.

import { defineConfig } from 'relizy'

export default defineConfig({
  monorepo: { versionMode: 'independent', packages: ['packages/*'] },
  templates: {
    commitMessage: 'release: {{packageCount}} packages',
    // commitBody stays undefined → no body
  },
})

WARNING

If you customize commitMessage but leave commitBody undefined, Relizy will not auto-apply the independent-mode body default. Smart defaults only trigger when both fields are unset.

Unified / selective mode

Defaults are unchanged — no body, single-line title:

chore(release): bump version to 1.2.0

You can still opt into the placeholders if you want a richer message:

export default defineConfig({
  monorepo: { versionMode: 'selective', packages: ['packages/*'] },
  templates: {
    commitMessage: 'chore(release): v{{newVersion}} ({{packageCount}} packages)',
    commitBody: '{{packageList}}',
  },
})

Tips for commitlint users

If your project uses commitlint with header-max-length, the independent-mode default is designed to stay well under 72 characters. If you customize commitMessage, double-check with:

echo "chore(release): bump 12 packages" | wc -c

And push long listings to commitBody where length is unrestricted.