A professional Git commit should be clear, concise, and meaningful so that anyone reviewing the history can understand what changes were made and why. Follow these best practices:

1. Follow a Consistent Commit Message Format

A commonly used format is:

<type>(<scope>): <short description>

[Optional longer description explaining what and why]
[Optional references to issues or PRs]

• Type: The type of change (e.g., feat, fix, chore, docs, refactor, test, style)
• Scope: The specific part of the project affected (optional)
• Short Description: A brief explanation of the change (imperative tense)
• Long Description (if needed): More details about what changed and why
• References: Link to related issues (e.g., Fixes #123)

2. Example Professional Commit Messages

For a new feature:

feat(auth): add JWT authentication middleware

Implemented JWT-based authentication middleware for secure API access.
Users must provide a valid token to access protected routes.

For a bug fix:

fix(profile): resolve issue with avatar not updating

Fixed a bug where the user’s profile avatar wouldn’t update after upload.
The cache was not clearing properly, which caused old images to persist.

For refactoring code:

refactor(db): optimize user query performance

Replaced multiple redundant queries with a single optimized SQL query.
Improves API response time by 30%.