GitExtensions.AICommitMessage 0.2.0

GitExtensions.AICommitMessage

Stop staring at a blank commit message. This is a plugin for Git Extensions that writes a first-draft commit message for you, straight from the changes you've staged.

It adds a ✨ AI message button to the Commit dialog. Click it, and the plugin sends your staged diff to an AI model of your choice and drops the suggested message into the commit box — where you read it, tweak it, and commit. No copy-pasting into a chat window, no leaving Git Extensions.

It talks to any OpenAI-compatible API — OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, OpenRouter, Groq — or a model running locally via Ollama, in which case nothing ever leaves your machine.

<img width="820" alt="The ✨ AI message button in the Git Extensions Commit dialog" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/16d7a860-c6ec-46af-964a-2bec811dc26f" />

The ✨ AI message button lives in the Commit dialog toolbar, right next to “Commit templates”.

How it feels to use

1. Stage the changes you want to commit, as usual.
2. Open the Commit dialog and click ✨ AI message.
3. The plugin reads your staged diff and asks your model for a message. A second or two later the suggestion appears in the message box.
4. Edit anything you like, then commit.

Out of the box it asks for a clean Conventional Commits subject line plus a short body explaining why the change was made — and you can rewrite that instruction to match your team's style (see the System prompt setting below).

Background. This grew out of gitextensions/gitextensions#12203. The maintainers preferred not to bake AI into the core app and pointed to the plugin model — so this is a standalone plugin you opt into, nothing more.

Privacy & safety (please read)

This plugin is built around the concerns raised on that original issue. You stay in control:

• Off by default. Nothing happens until you switch it on in settings and click the button.
• Explicit consent, every single time. Your diff is sent only when you click the button — never automatically, never when the dialog opens, never in the background.
• Only staged content is sent. It runs git diff --cached, so anything unstaged or excluded by .gitignore is never included. Stage deliberately.
• Your key, your endpoint. You bring your own API key — or point it at a local Ollama model so nothing leaves your machine. The key is stored in Git Extensions' plugin settings.
• Size cap. Large diffs are truncated to a configurable character limit, so a huge commit can't run up an unexpected token bill.

In short: you are sending your staged diff to whatever endpoint you configure. Don't enable it on repositories whose contents you can't share with that provider.

Requirements

• Git Extensions 7.x (built and tested against 7.0.1.86, which runs on .NET 10). The 5.2.x / .NET 8 line is a separate, incompatible generation — see Compatibility.
• Git available on your PATH.
• An API key for an OpenAI-compatible provider, or a local server such as Ollama.

Compatibility

Git Extensions plugins are tied to the host's runtime and to the major version of its GitExtensions.Extensibility contract — Git Extensions bumps that major version on every plugin-breaking release, and the Plugin Manager only shows a plugin whose declared dependency range covers the host's version. Because of that, a single build can't span generations:

The [7.0.0, 8.0.0) range means this release works across the entire current 7.x line — every patch and minor update, no re-pinning needed — but it intentionally will not appear in the Plugin Manager on the older .NET 8 builds. If you're on a 5.2.x install, use the older 0.1.x package or update Git Extensions.

Install

1. Build the plugin (see Build from source) or download the release .nupkg/DLL.
2. Copy GitExtensions.AICommitMessage.dll into the Git Extensions Plugins folder: C:\Program Files\GitExtensions\Plugins\ (writing here needs administrator rights).
3. Restart Git Extensions.

Prefer the Plugin Manager? See Install from NuGet.

Configure

Open Settings → Plugins → AI Commit Message and fill in the fields:

<img width="820" alt="AI commit message settings in Git Extensions" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/f78f6df1-a96c-4c27-90d3-ffac81d702fc" />

Build from source

dotnet build src/GitExtensions.AICommitMessage/GitExtensions.AICommitMessage.csproj -c Release

The project compiles against the Git Extensions assemblies in your install (C:\Program Files\GitExtensions by default). If yours is elsewhere:

dotnet build ... -c Release -p:GitExtensionsPath="D:\path\to\GitExtensions"

Those host assemblies are referenced with Private=false, so the build output is just the plugin DLL — Git Extensions provides the rest at runtime.

Install from NuGet (other machines)

Once published, the package depends on GitExtensions.Extensibility — the marker the Git Extensions Plugin Manager uses to discover plugins. On another machine you can either:

• open Git Extensions → Plugins → Plugin Manager, find AI Commit Message, and install it; or
• download the .nupkg from nuget.org, rename it to .zip, and copy the lib/GitExtensions.AICommitMessage.dll into your %LOCALAPPDATA%\GitExtensions\UserPlugins\ folder.

Releasing to NuGet

Publishing is automated by .github/workflows/release.yml using nuget.org Trusted Publishing (OIDC — no stored API key to manage). One-time setup:

1. On nuget.org → Trusted Publishing, add a policy:

   • Repository Owner: badrshs
   • Repository: GitExtensions.AICommitMessage
   • Workflow File: release.yml
   • Environment: (leave blank)

2. In this GitHub repo, add an Actions variable NUGET_USER set to your nuget.org username (Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions → Variables → New repository variable).

3. Tag a version and push it:

   git tag v0.2.0
   git push origin v0.2.0
   

The workflow fetches the matching Git Extensions binaries, packs the plugin, obtains a short-lived key via OIDC, and pushes to nuget.org.

To build the package locally instead:

dotnet pack src/GitExtensions.AICommitMessage/GitExtensions.AICommitMessage.csproj -c Release
# then, with your own key:
dotnet nuget push src/GitExtensions.AICommitMessage/bin/Release/GitExtensions.AICommitMessage.0.2.0.nupkg \
  -k <YOUR_NUGET_API_KEY> -s https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json

How it works

A quick tour for the curious — three small files:

• Plugin.cs exports IGitPlugin / IGitPluginForCommit via MEF. When the Commit dialog opens (and only if the plugin is enabled) it waits for the form to appear, then injects the ✨ AI message ToolStripButton into the commit toolbar next to “Commit templates”. The diff is read and sent only inside the button's click handler — that's the consent boundary.
• GitHelper.cs reads the staged diff with git --no-pager diff --cached --no-color.
• OpenAiClient.cs POSTs the system prompt + diff to {baseUrl}/chat/completions and returns choices[0].message.content, which is placed into the commit message box.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.md.