Commands & Flags

Main Usage

bash

commitbee [FLAGS] [COMMAND]

When run without a command, CommitBee generates a commit message for your staged changes.

Flags

Flag	Short	Description
`--dry-run`		Print message only, don’t commit
`--yes`	`-y`	Auto-confirm and commit without prompting
`--generate N`	`-n N`	Generate N candidates (1-5), pick interactively
`--no-split`		Disable commit split suggestions
`--no-scope`		Disable scope in commit messages
`--clipboard`		Copy message to clipboard instead of committing
`--exclude <GLOB>`		Exclude files matching glob pattern (repeatable)
`--locale <LANG>`		Generate the commit message subject and body in a specific language (e.g. `de`)
`--allow-secrets`		Allow committing with detected secrets (Ollama only)
`--show-prompt`		Display the full prompt sent to the LLM
`--verbose`	`-v`	Show symbol extraction details
`--provider`	`-p`	Override LLM provider
`--model`	`-m`	Override model name

Commands

Command	Description
`init`	Create a config file at the platform path
`config`	Show current configuration values
`config check`	Validate configuration
`config set-key <provider>`	Store API key in system keychain
`config get-key <provider>`	Check if key exists in keychain
`doctor`	Check configuration, connectivity, and model availability
`completions <shell>`	Generate shell completions (bash, zsh, fish, powershell)
`hook install`	Install `prepare-commit-msg` git hook
`hook uninstall`	Remove the git hook
`hook status`	Check if the hook is installed

Usage Patterns

bash

# The basics
commitbee                        # Interactive: generate, review, commit
commitbee --dry-run              # Preview without committing
commitbee --yes                  # Non-interactive: generate and commit

# Debugging
commitbee --show-prompt          # See exactly what the LLM receives
commitbee --verbose              # See tree-sitter symbol extraction
COMMITBEE_LOG=debug commitbee    # Full debug logging

# Multiple candidates
commitbee -n 3                   # Generate 3 options, pick the best

# Clipboard
commitbee --clipboard            # Copy message to clipboard (no commit)

# Exclude files
commitbee --exclude "*.lock"     # Skip lock files from analysis
commitbee --exclude "*.lock" --exclude "vendor/**"  # Multiple patterns

# Multi-Language Commits
commitbee --locale de            # Write commit subject and body in German
commitbee --locale ja            # Write commit in Japanese

# Scripting / CI
commitbee --yes --dry-run        # Generate message, print to stdout, exit
commitbee --no-split --yes       # Skip split suggestion, auto-commit