Re: [PATCH v5 5/6] agents: add a skill to write commit messages

[Rafael J. Wysocki (Intel)]

On Thu, Nov 12, 2026 at 12:00 AM Theodore Ts'o <tytso@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> From: Sasha Levin <sashal@xxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Assistants are asked to commit a fix with a detailed message, and the
> find-fixes and stable-tag skills leave their tags for that message, but
> nothing says how to write it. Messages written by assistants tend to be
> long, and Linus recently asked that pull request text written with an
> LLM be less verbose and prefer the imperative voice.
>
> Add a skill that sends the agent to the parts of submitting-patches.rst,
> 5.Posting.rst and the maintainer documentation that cover commit
> messages, cover letters and pull requests, and to the P: profiles of the
> changed files. It adds what agents get wrong: stating only what the
> change and the supplied sources support, keeping the text short and in
> the imperative mood, and adding no tags that were not supplied.
>
> When a semantic patch found the bug, the message includes it, or its path
> when it is under scripts/coccinelle/, so that reviewers and the
> Coccinelle developers can see it and run it again.
>
> Point the bug-fix procedure in coding-assistants.rst at the skill.
>
> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/CAHk-=wgXU50=KgZNZc1JDxsSxg9Z+DjG1_2yU-fNXpZtUe4XDw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/50531bd9-f3ea-2d45-7b3a-a96a446a8fcc@xxxxxxxx
> Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin <sashal@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20261020161642.3713052-6-sashal@xxxxxxxxxx
> Signed-off-by: Theodore Ts'o <tytso@xxxxxxx>

Looks reasonable to me.

Acked-by: Rafael J. Wysocki (Intel) <rafael@xxxxxxxxxx>

> ---
>  Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst |  9 +++--
>  agents/skills/commit-message/SKILL.md       | 45 +++++++++++++++++++++
>  2 files changed, 51 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
>  create mode 100644 agents/skills/commit-message/SKILL.md
>
> diff --git a/Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst b/Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst
> index c2f9b71650c1..f0bae6bfe9a0 100644
> --- a/Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst
> +++ b/Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst
> @@ -41,6 +41,8 @@ The following skills are available:
>    returns its stable tag, or checks an existing one.
>  * agents/skills/find-siblings/SKILL.md looks for the same bug elsewhere in the
>    tree.
> +* agents/skills/commit-message/SKILL.md writes, rewrites or reviews a commit
> +  message or cover letter, and writes the text of a pull request.
>
>  Licensing and Legal Requirements
>  ================================
> @@ -87,9 +89,10 @@ these steps:
>     another one. The fix must not add build warnings and must pass the
>     checkpatch.pl checks (see submitting-patches.rst). Then look for the same
>     bug elsewhere with the find-siblings skill.
> -6. Commit the working fix with a detailed message describing the problem, the
> -   solution, a Fixes tag determined with the find-fixes skill, and a stable
> -   tag if the stable-tag skill calls for one.  Do not add a Signed-off-by tag.
> +6. Commit the working fix with a message written with the commit-message skill,
> +   describing the problem, the solution, a Fixes tag determined with the
> +   find-fixes skill, and a stable tag if the stable-tag skill calls for one. Do
> +   not add a Signed-off-by tag.
>  7. Identify the maintainers and lists using scripts/get_maintainer.pl.
>     Documentation/process/security-bugs.rst shows how to do that.
>  8. Indicate what could not be done. If the fix could not be built or tested, or
> diff --git a/agents/skills/commit-message/SKILL.md b/agents/skills/commit-message/SKILL.md
> new file mode 100644
> index 000000000000..c75f028c56da
> --- /dev/null
> +++ b/agents/skills/commit-message/SKILL.md
> @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
> +---
> +# SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-only
> +name: commit-message
> +description: >-
> +  Write, rewrite or review the commit message for a Linux kernel change or
> +  the cover letter for a patch series, and write the signed tag and pull
> +  request text for a subsystem pull. Use when committing or preparing
> +  patches, when asked to improve or check a commit message, or when
> +  preparing a pull request for an upstream maintainer.
> +---
> +
> +# Write a commit message
> +
> +Read "Describe your changes", the sections on tags, "The canonical patch
> +format" and "Commentary" in Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst, and
> +Documentation/process/5.Posting.rst for cover letters. Follow the maintainer
> +profiles, the `P:` entries in MAINTAINERS, for the changed files; they take
> +precedence. Follow the rules for skills and for attribution in
> +Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst, and
> +Documentation/process/generated-content.rst when a tool found the problem.
> +When editing someone else's message, also follow
> +Documentation/maintainer/modifying-patches.rst.
> +
> +- State only what the diff and the sources you were given support, such as a
> +  bug report, a crash log, test results, or the list discussion found with
> +  `lei q` on lore.kernel.org. If the reason for the change is not known,
> +  return no message and say what is missing.
> +- Take the Fixes and stable tags from the find-fixes and stable-tag skills.
> +  Add other tags only when they were supplied or given on the list. Never add
> +  a Signed-off-by.
> +- If a semantic patch found the bug, include it in the message between
> +  `// <smpl>` and `// </smpl>` lines. For one under scripts/coccinelle/, give
> +  its path instead.
> +- Use the imperative mood and keep the message as short as its content
> +  allows. Leave out markdown, labels such as "Root cause:", intensifiers, a
> +  restatement of the subject, and the story of the investigation.
> +- Check the result with `scripts/checkpatch.pl --no-signoff`.
> +
> +For the signed tag and email of a pull request, follow
> +Documentation/maintainer/pull-requests.rst,
> +Documentation/maintainer/rebasing-and-merging.rst and
> +Documentation/maintainer/messy-diffstat.rst. Summarize what the pull contains
> +and why from the commit messages in the range, in the same voice, without
> +repeating the shortlog. Ask the caller for conflict resolutions and testing
> +that the history does not show.
> --
> 2.53.0
>
>