commit

Commit your staged changes on the @local branch. Unlike a plain git commit, this command automatically splits your changes into two commits: one with clean code (publishable), and one with your local comments (stays in @local only).

Usage

git add <files>
git shadow commit -m "your commit message"

You must stage your files with git add before running this command.

Example

git add src/auth/login.ts
git shadow commit -m "feat(auth): implement login flow"

What it does

  1. Requires at least one staged change — exits with an error if nothing is staged
  2. Strips lines matching LOCAL_COMMENT_PATTERN from the index (working tree is untouched)
  3. Exits with an error if nothing remains after stripping (staged content was only comments)
  4. Creates commit 1: clean code, with your supplied message (or opens editor if -m is omitted)
  5. Runs git add . to restage the local comments that remain in the working tree
  6. Creates commit 2 automatically: [MEMORY] <previous commit subject> with --no-verify

If no local comments were present, only one commit is created and step 5–6 are skipped.

[MEMORY] commits

You can use any commit message with [MEMORY] to create a local-only commit. These commits will never be cherry-picked to the public branch when you run feature publish.

git shadow commit -m "[MEMORY] add AI context for authentication module"

Use [MEMORY] commits for:

  • AI memory files
  • Local environment tweaks (disabled validations, dev-only config)
  • Personal scripts or helpers your team doesn’t need
  • Architecture notes meant only for your local context

The [MEMORY] prefix is configurable via SHADOW_COMMIT_PREFIX.

Shorthand with publish

You can skip a separate commit step and commit + publish in one command:

git shadow feature publish --commit -m "feat(auth): implement login flow"

Note: feature publish --commit runs git add . automatically before committing — you don’t need to stage manually.