Adopt Conventional Commits

[milkshakeuk]

Description:

This issue proposes adopting the Conventional Commits specification for commit messages in this repository. Conventional Commits is a standardised format for writing commit messages that improves readability, consistency, and automation capabilities.

Benefits of adopting Conventional Commits:

1. Improves Commit History: Commit messages become more structured and meaningful, making it easier to understand changes in the codebase at a glance.
2. Enables Automation: Tools like semantic versioning, changelog generation, and release automation can leverage the structured format of Conventional Commits, especially important for releases of the spectral ruleset.
3. Facilitates Collaboration: A consistent format helps team members quickly understand the purpose of each commit, fostering better collaboration.
4. Enhances Debugging: By identifying the type and scope of changes (e.g., fix, feat, chore), it becomes easier to trace bugs and understand the evolution of features.
5. Standardisation Across Teams: Provides a clear, shared standard for writing commit messages, reducing ambiguity and discrepancies.

Proposed Steps:

1. Update Contribution Guidelines: Add a section in the CONTRIBUTING.md file explaining the Conventional Commits format and providing examples.
2. Integrate Validation Tools: Set up tools like commitlint to enforce the commit message format during development.
3. Automate Spectral Ruleset releases: Update release workflows to determine next version based on Conventional Commits, including generation of release notes.

Example Commit Message Format:

<type>[optional scope]: <description>

[optional body]

[optional footer(s)]

Common types include:

• feat: A new feature
• fix: A bug fix
• docs: Documentation updates
• style: Code style changes (formatting, missing semicolons, etc.)
• refactor: Code restructuring without changing external behaviour
• perf: A code change that improves performance
• test: Adding or updating tests
• chore: Maintenance tasks (build-related changes, dependency updates)

References:

• Conventional Commits
• commitlint
• Release Please
• semantic-release