lint-commits.yml

Validate commit messages follow the Conventional Commits specification using commitlint. Supports both pull request and push events with configurable rules.

Inputs

Input	Type	Description	Required	Default
COMMITS_SOURCE	string	Source of commits to lint (pr for PR, push for push)	No	"pr"
CONFIG_FILE	string	Path to custom commitlint config file	No	""
FAIL_ON_ERROR	boolean	Whether to fail the workflow on linting errors	No	true
ALLOWED_TYPES	string	Comma-separated list of allowed commit types	No	"feat,fix,docs,style,refactor,perf,test,build,ci,chore,revert"
REQUIRE_SCOPE	boolean	Whether to require a scope in commit messages	No	false
MAX_SUBJECT_LENGTH	number	Maximum length of the commit header line (including type(scope): prefix) — controls commitlint's header-max-length rule	No	100
RUNS_ON	string	Runner labels as JSON array (e.g., '["ubuntu-24.04"]' or '["self-hosted", "linux"]')	No	["ubuntu-24.04"]

Permissions

Scope	Access	Description
contents	read	Read commit history

Notes

• Conventional Commits Format: <type>(<scope>): <subject>
• Default Types: feat, fix, docs, style, refactor, perf, test, build, ci, chore, revert
• Uses Bun runtime for fast package installation and execution.
• Uses @commitlint/cli with @commitlint/config-conventional as the base configuration.
• Automatically generates a commitlint config if no custom config file is provided.
• Produces a summary table in the GitHub Actions workflow summary showing each commit's status.
• For PRs, lints all commits between the base and head branches.
• For push events, lints commits between the previous and current SHA.
• Custom configuration files (e.g., commitlint.config.js) take precedence over auto-generated config.

Examples

The following examples cover basic commit linting, scope enforcement, custom allowed types, external config files, non-blocking mode, and linting push events instead of pull requests.

Simple example

Lints all PR commits against the default Conventional Commits ruleset with no extra configuration. The 11 standard types are accepted and no scope is required.

jobs:
  lint-commits:
    uses: this-is-tobi/github-workflows/.github/workflows/lint-commits.yml@v0
    permissions:
      contents: read

Require scope

REQUIRE_SCOPE: true makes the (scope) part of the format mandatory — feat: add feature fails, while feat(auth): add feature passes.

jobs:
  lint-commits:
    uses: this-is-tobi/github-workflows/.github/workflows/lint-commits.yml@v0
    permissions:
      contents: read
    with:
      REQUIRE_SCOPE: true

Custom allowed types

Restricts the accepted types to a minimal set and lowers the commit header length limit to 72 characters — a common Git convention that fits in standard terminal widths.

jobs:
  lint-commits:
    uses: this-is-tobi/github-workflows/.github/workflows/lint-commits.yml@v0
    permissions:
      contents: read
    with:
      ALLOWED_TYPES: "feat,fix,docs,chore"
      MAX_SUBJECT_LENGTH: 72

Use custom config file

Loads the full commitlint configuration from .commitlintrc.js. All inline inputs (ALLOWED_TYPES, REQUIRE_SCOPE, MAX_SUBJECT_LENGTH) are overridden by the config file.

jobs:
  lint-commits:
    uses: this-is-tobi/github-workflows/.github/workflows/lint-commits.yml@v0
    permissions:
      contents: read
    with:
      CONFIG_FILE: .commitlintrc.js

Non-blocking check

Violations appear in the workflow summary table without failing the job. Useful when rolling out Conventional Commits on a repository that already has non-conforming commit history.

jobs:
  lint-commits:
    uses: this-is-tobi/github-workflows/.github/workflows/lint-commits.yml@v0
    permissions:
      contents: read
    with:
      FAIL_ON_ERROR: false

For push events

COMMITS_SOURCE: push switches the commit range from the PR context to the push SHA range (before → after). The workflow should be triggered on push events rather than pull_request.

on:
  push:
    branches:
    - main
    - develop

jobs:
  lint-commits:
    uses: this-is-tobi/github-workflows/.github/workflows/lint-commits.yml@v0
    permissions:
      contents: read
    with:
      COMMITS_SOURCE: push