Distill - AI-Powered Git Commit Message Generator

A Rust command-line application that automatically generates intelligent commit messages using OpenRouter API based on your staged git changes.

Features

• 🤖 AI-Generated Commit Messages: Uses OpenRouter API to generate contextual commit messages
• 🔍 Smart Change Detection: Analyzes staged changes or auto-stages all changes
• 🚀 One-Command Workflow: Generate and commit in a single command
• 🛡️ Safety First: Dry-run mode to preview commit messages before committing
• 📝 Conventional Commits: Follows conventional commit format standards
• ⚙️ Configurable: Flexible command-line options

Installation

Prerequisites

• Rust (1.70 or later)
• Git repository
• OpenRouter API key

Build from Source

# Clone the repository
git clone <repository-url>
cd distill

# Build the application
cargo build --release

# Install globally (optional)
cargo install --path .

Configuration

Environment Variables

Set your OpenRouter API key:

export OPENROUTER_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"

To make this permanent, add it to your shell profile (~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, etc.):

echo 'export OPENROUTER_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

Git Configuration

Ensure your git user information is configured:

git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "your.email@example.com"

Usage

Basic Usage

# Generate commit message and commit automatically
distill

# Preview commit message without committing (dry run)
distill --dry-run

# Don't auto-stage changes - only work with already staged changes
distill --no-auto-stage

# Verbose output for debugging
distill --verbose

Command-Line Options

• --no-auto-stage: Don't automatically stage changes if no changes are staged
• --dry-run: Generate commit message but don't commit
• --verbose, -v: Enable verbose logging output
• --help, -h: Show help information

Workflow Examples

Standard Workflow

# Make your changes
echo "console.log('Hello, World!');" > hello.js

# Generate AI commit message and commit
distill

Selective Staging

# Stage specific files
git add src/main.rs

# Generate commit message for staged changes only
distill --no-auto-stage

Preview Mode

# See what commit message would be generated
distill --dry-run

# If you like it, run again without --dry-run
distill

How It Works

1. Change Detection: Checks for staged changes in your git repository
2. Auto-Staging: If no changes are staged (and --no-auto-stage isn't set), stages all changes
3. Diff Generation: Creates a diff of the staged changes
4. AI Processing: Sends the diff to OpenRouter API for commit message generation
5. Commit Creation: Creates a git commit with the AI-generated message

Configuration

The application uses the OpenRouter API with the meta-llama/llama-3.1-8b-instruct:free model by default. The AI is prompted to generate commit messages following conventional commit standards.

Commit Message Format

Generated commit messages follow the conventional commit format:

• feat: add new feature
• fix: resolve bug in authentication
• docs: update API documentation
• refactor: restructure user service

Error Handling

The application provides clear error messages for common issues:

• Missing API Key: Clear instructions to set OPENROUTER_API_KEY
• Not in Git Repository: Ensures you're running from within a git repository
• No Changes: Handles cases where there are no changes to commit
• API Failures: Graceful handling of network or API issues

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

1. "OPENROUTER_API_KEY environment variable is not set"

   • Solution: Set your API key as shown in the Configuration section

2. "Failed to open git repository"

   • Solution: Ensure you're running the command from within a git repository

3. "No changes to commit"

   • Solution: Make some changes to your files or check if you have uncommitted changes

4. API request failures

   • Solution: Check your internet connection and API key validity

Debug Mode

Use the --verbose flag to see detailed logs:

distill --verbose

This will show:

• Git operations
• API requests and responses
• Internal processing steps

Development

Project Structure

src/
├── main.rs          # CLI interface and orchestration
├── config.rs        # Configuration and environment variables
├── git.rs           # Git operations (staging, diff, commit)
└── openrouter.rs    # OpenRouter API client

Building

# Development build
cargo build

# Release build
cargo build --release

# Run tests
cargo test

# Run with logs
RUST_LOG=debug cargo run -- --verbose

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes
4. Add tests if applicable
5. Submit a pull request

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

• OpenRouter for providing the AI API
• The Rust community for excellent crates
• Git for being an amazing version control system