How to setup Conventional Commits in JavaScript project: 2026 edition

A developer has published an updated guide on setting up Conventional Commits in JavaScript projects for 2026, covering new tooling such as AI coding agents that write commits and release automation, Simple Release v3, and updated documentation websites for Conventional Changelog and Simple Release. The guide explains the Conventional Commits specification, its benefits for automated versioning and changelogs, and provides step-by-step instructions for tools like Commitlint and simple-git-hooks, including CI setup with GitHub Actions and monorepo scope configuration.

A year ago I published the first edition of this guide https://dangreen.blog/post/how-to-setup-conventional-commits-in-javascript-project/ . Since then the tooling has moved forward: AI coding agents learned to write Conventional Commits and set up release automation through agent skills, Simple Release got v3, and both Conventional Changelog https://conventional-changelog.js.org/ and Simple Release https://simple-release.js.org/ got their own documentation websites. So here is the refreshed edition. Conventional Commits https://www.conventionalcommits.org/en/v1.0.0/ is a specification for adding human and machine readable meaning to commit messages. It provides an easy set of rules for creating an explicit commit history, which makes it easier to write automated tools on top of. The commit message should be structured as follows: <type optional scope : <description optional body optional footer s Examples: Feature addition feat: add user authentication Bug fix fix: resolve login redirect issue Breaking change feat : migrate to new API endpoint Also breaking change feat: add new payment method BREAKING CHANGE: migrate to new payment gateway With scope feat auth : add password reset functionality With body and footer fix: prevent racing of requests Introduce a request id and a reference to latest request. Dismiss incoming responses other than from latest request. Closes 123 Conventional commits enable automatic semantic versioning: Tools can automatically generate changelogs by parsing commit messages, grouping them by type, and extracting relevant information. Conventional commits create a more readable and searchable project history, making it easier to understand what changes were made and why. To achieve complete automation of versioning and releases, you'll need several tools working together. Let's set them up step by step. While not mandatory, Commitlint https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint helps enforce conventional commit standards by linting commit messages. First, install Commitlint and the Conventional Commits plugin: npm install --save-dev @commitlint/cli @commitlint/config-conventional Then you need to set up a configuration. For a basic project, create .commitlintrc.json : { "extends": "@commitlint/config-conventional" } Now you can set up commit validation during git commit , for example using simple-git-hooks https://github.com/toplenboren/simple-git-hooks , though there are other similar tools available husky https://github.com/typicode/husky , pre-commit https://github.com/observing/pre-commit , etc. . Install simple-git-hooks: npm install --save-dev simple-git-hooks Create .simple-git-hooks.json : { "commit-msg": "npx commitlint --edit \"$1\"" } Now run npx simple-git-hooks to activate the hooks and you're ready to go You can also set up commit linting via GitHub Actions when commits are pushed to the repository. Create .github/workflows/commit.yml : name: Commit Validation on: pull request: types: opened, synchronize jobs: commitlint: runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - uses: actions/checkout@v7 with: fetch-depth: 0 - name: Setup Node.js uses: actions/setup-node@v6 with: node-version: 24 cache: 'npm' - name: Install dependencies run: npm ci - name: Validate commit messages run: npx commitlint --from=HEAD~1 In monorepos, it's common practice to use scopes in Conventional Commits that correspond to workspace names in the monorepo. This helps identify which workspace s are affected by each commit. For example: feat store : add user authentication state fix ui : resolve button styling issue docs router : update routing configuration guide You can use specialized packages to automatically get project scopes: Let's look at an example for pnpm workspaces: Install the packages: pnpm add -D @commitlint/cli @commitlint/config-conventional @commitlint/config-pnpm-scopes Create .commitlintrc.js : python import scopes from '@commitlint/config-pnpm-scopes' export default { extends: '@commitlint/config-conventional', '@commitlint/config-pnpm-scopes' , rules: { 'scope-enum': async ctx = { const scopeEnum = await scopes.rules 'scope-enum' ctx return scopeEnum 0 , scopeEnum 1 , ...scopeEnum 2 , 'deps', // for Dependabot or Renovate - dependency updates 'dev-deps', // for Dependabot or Renovate - dev dependency updates 'release' // for release commits } }, prompt: { settings: { enableMultipleScopes: true } } } Commitizen https://github.com/commitizen/cz-cli is an optional but very convenient tool that provides an interactive CLI for creating Conventional Commits. First, install Commitizen and the Commitlint adapter: npm install --save-dev commitizen @commitlint/cz-commitlint Then create .czrc : { "path": "@commitlint/cz-commitlint" } Add a script to package.json : { "scripts": { "commit": "cz" } } Now you can use npm run commit instead of git commit for interactive commit creation. If your team writes commits with an AI coding agent, the conventional-changelog project ships a universal agent skill https://conventional-changelog.js.org/getting-started/agent-skills/ , conventional-commit-message , that teaches the agent to produce correct Conventional Commit messages - choosing the type and scope by release impact, flagging breaking changes, and validating against your Commitlint config when it is available. It works with Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot, and other agents that support the skills format. Install it with either package runner: pnpm pnpx skills add conventional-changelog/conventional-changelog --skill conventional-commit-message npm npx skills add conventional-changelog/conventional-changelog --skill conventional-commit-message From then on, asking the agent for a commit message yields a changelog-ready message that follows the same convention Commitlint enforces. See Agent Skills https://conventional-changelog.js.org/getting-started/agent-skills/ for the full details. The simple-release-action https://github.com/marketplace/actions/simple-release-action is a comprehensive GitHub Action that automates version updates, changelog generation, and releases. The project is based on simple-release https://github.com/TrigenSoftware/simple-release and conventional-changelog https://github.com/conventional-changelog/conventional-changelog . The setup described below can also be done for you by an AI coding agent: the setup-simple-release-action skill teaches the agent to detect your project type and toolchain, generate the config and workflow, and finish with a checklist of the repository settings only you can change. Key Features: Currently npm https://simple-release.js.org/project-types/npm/ , pnpm https://simple-release.js.org/project-types/pnpm/ , and GitHub Actions https://simple-release.js.org/project-types/github-action/ projects are supported. Let's look at an example of configuring the action for a project with pnpm workspaces using the @simple-release/pnpm https://simple-release.js.org/project-types/pnpm/ addon: Create .simple-release.json config file in repository root: { "project": "@simple-release/pnpm PnpmWorkspacesProject", { "mode": "fixed" } , "bump": { "extraScopes": "deps" } } extraScopes is used to trigger version bump by commits like fix deps : ... from Dependabot or Renovate. Create .github/workflows/release.yml : name: Release on: issue comment: types: created, deleted push: branches: - main jobs: check: runs-on: ubuntu-latest name: Context check outputs: continue: ${{ steps.check.outputs.continue }} workflow: ${{ steps.check.outputs.workflow }} steps: - name: Checkout the repository uses: actions/checkout@v7 - name: Context check id: check uses: TrigenSoftware/simple-release-action@v2 with: workflow: check github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB TOKEN }} pull-request: runs-on: ubuntu-latest name: Pull request needs: check if: needs.check.outputs.workflow == 'pull-request' steps: - name: Checkout the repository uses: actions/checkout@v7 - name: Create or update pull request uses: TrigenSoftware/simple-release-action@v2 with: workflow: pull-request github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB TOKEN }} release: runs-on: ubuntu-latest name: Release needs: check if: needs.check.outputs.workflow == 'release' steps: - name: Checkout the repository uses: actions/checkout@v7 - name: Install pnpm uses: pnpm/action-setup@v6 with: version: 10 - name: Install Node.js uses: actions/setup-node@v6 with: node-version: 24 cache: 'pnpm' registry-url: 'https://registry.npmjs.org' - name: Install dependencies run: pnpm install - name: Release uses: TrigenSoftware/simple-release-action@v2 with: workflow: release github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB TOKEN }} npm-token: ${{ secrets.NPM TOKEN }} This workflow consists of three jobs: Every time you push to the main branch, the action will create or update a pull request with a version bump and updated changelog if necessary. When the pull request is merged, it will automatically release the project. If you are not using GitHub, you can write your own custom CI script using the @simple-release/core package. There is also a recommendation to use squash merge for pull requests to keep the commit history in the main branch clean and well-structured. This ensures that each merge commit follows conventional commit standards and makes the project history more readable. By implementing Conventional Commits with this toolchain, you'll have a fully automated release pipeline that maintains consistency, improves project history readability, and reduces manual overhead in version management. For more details, guides and API references, check out the documentation websites: conventional-changelog.js.org https://conventional-changelog.js.org/ and simple-release.js.org https://simple-release.js.org/ . If you want to see real projects using Conventional Commits and their configurations, here are a few examples: