Quick Commitlint

Quick Commitlint documentation

Commitlint compatibility

See which commitlint behavior Quick Commitlint supports and where the native CLI deliberately differs.

Quick Commitlint is a focused native implementation of a tested subset of Commitlint behavior. It is designed for projects that want the included Conventional or Angular rules without loading Commitlint's JavaScript configuration and rule stack for every commit.

The comparison baseline is @commitlint/cli 21.2.1 with @commitlint/config-conventional 21.2.0 and @commitlint/config-angular 21.2.0, matching the packages pinned by this repository. Consult Commitlint's official CLI, configuration, and plugin references for its complete feature set.

Quick Commitlint is not a drop-in replacement for every Commitlint configuration.

At a glance

Area Quick Commitlint Commitlint
Runtime Small Node.js launcher selects a bundled native Zig linting executable; the package has no runtime npm dependencies Node.js CLI with JavaScript packages for loading configuration, parsing, formatting, and linting
Default configuration Uses the built-in conventional preset when no configuration is found Normally loads discovered or supplied rules; --default-config can provide a Conventional fallback
Configuration files Strict .quick-commitlint.json JSON JS, TS, JSON, YAML, extensionless, and package.json or package.yaml configuration
Presets Exactly conventional and angular, embedded in the executable Shareable npm or local configurations composed through extends
Rules Fixed 14-rule subset with static JSON values Larger built-in rule set plus plugins, local rules, and function or promise values
Parser Fixed native parser Configurable parser presets and parser options
Ignores Lints every supplied message Provides default generated-message ignores and custom ignore functions
Inputs Standard input or one commit-message file Standard input, edit or environment files, the last commit, Git ranges, and ranges from the last tag
Output Colored lint report on stderr; help and version on stdout Configurable colors, formatters, quiet and verbose modes, help URLs, and strict warning/error exit codes
Platforms Bundled for macOS arm64/x64, Linux arm64/x64, and Windows x64 Runs where its supported Node.js and Git versions are available

Conventional and Angular presets

Mode Quick Commitlint Commitlint reference Tested compatibility
Conventional Built-in conventional preset, active by default @commitlint/config-conventional 21.2.0 Supported preset defaults and diagnostics are compared through @commitlint/cli 21.2.1
Angular Built-in angular preset, selected with "preset": "angular" @commitlint/config-angular 21.2.0 Supported preset defaults and diagnostics are compared through @commitlint/cli 21.2.1

The differential corpus currently exercises 66 Conventional and Angular cases. It checks pass/fail behavior and expected diagnostics for the supported preset rules. This protects the intended compatibility boundary; it does not claim parity for Commitlint rules or features that Quick Commitlint does not implement.

Within that boundary, Quick Commitlint supports:

  • The 14-rule union listed in the Rules reference
  • The complete embedded defaults documented in the Presets reference
  • Commitlint-style severity, condition, and value tuples
  • Conventional header, body, footer, scope, subject, and breaking-marker checks
  • JSON rule overrides layered on either preset
  • Warning-only success and rule-error failure statuses

Configuration features not supported

Quick Commitlint does not implement:

  • extends
  • parserPreset or parserOpts
  • plugins
  • custom rule functions
  • ignores or defaultIgnores
  • formatter selection
  • prompt configuration
  • help URLs
  • configuration in package.json
  • JavaScript, TypeScript, YAML, or extensionless configuration files

Adding any unknown top-level key or rule is an error rather than being silently ignored.

Parser and ignore differences

The native parser expects an exact : header separator and an ASCII alphanumeric or underscore type. It does not provide custom header patterns, custom scope delimiters, or multiple-scope parsing. Only a recognized final paragraph becomes the footer.

Generated commit messages—merge, revert, fixup, tag, and initial messages—are linted. If a workflow wants to ignore them, it must avoid invoking Quick Commitlint for those messages or preprocess the input before calling it.

For measured Conventional and Angular cold-start numbers, methodology, and reproduction steps, see the dedicated Performance page.

Choosing between them

Quick Commitlint is a good fit when:

  • one of the two built-in presets is close to the desired policy;
  • the supported JSON overrides are sufficient;
  • fast native linting and no additional runtime npm dependencies matter;
  • macOS arm64/x64, Linux arm64/x64, or Windows x64 is the deployment platform.

Use Commitlint when the project depends on shareable npm configurations, plugins, custom parsers, custom ignores, Git-range linting, or rules outside the supported subset.