commit-rewriter 0.2
- ID
- 28267
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 25 Sep 2026, 4:06 AM
- Fetched
- 25 Sep 2026, 5:29 AM
- Provider
- Simon Willison
- Category
- developer-ai
- Original URL
- https://simonwillison.net/2026/Sep/24/commit-rewriter/
- Source URL
- https://simonwillison.net/atom/everything/
Summary
- Score
- 2.5
- Created
- 25 Sep 2026, 5:30 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- developersvibe_coders
What happened
commit-rewriter 0.2 is a small release of Simon Willison's Python web app for rewriting commit messages, adding support for branches other than the default. The new capability is invoked with `uvx commit-rewriter --branch other`, so you can run the tool against a named branch without switching your working branch. The post is a one-line release note dated 24 September 2026 with no benchmarks, adoption numbers, or technical write-up.
Why it matters
Only worth acting on if you already use commit-rewriter: the `--branch other` flag removes the need to check out a branch before cleaning up its commit messages, and `uvx` means you can run it without a persistent install. There is no detail here on how the rewrite behaves, whether it force-pushes, or what happens on shared branches, so don't change any team git workflow based on this note alone.
Discussion angle
Rewriting commit messages on a non-default branch raises the practical question of when LLM-assisted history edits are safe versus when they break shared branches or CI caches — worth a short live walkthrough of the flag rather than a broader debate.