Command Options and Flags

This page is a complete reference for all CLI options and arguments accepted by the commit and config commands. It documents what each flag does, its default value, and which config key it corresponds to.

For a narrative walkthrough of how the commit command uses these options end-to-end, see 3.1 For details on the underlying configuration system that supplies default values, see 3.3 and 7.1

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commit Command

The commit command is defined in app/Commands/CommitCommand.php and registered as the default command.

Usage:

ai-commit commit [options] [--] [<path>]

Arguments

Argument	Required	Description	Default
path	No	Working directory for all git subprocess calls	Current working directory (ConfigManager::localPath(''))

The path argument is passed as the cwd for every Process instance created inside CommitCommand. See app/Commands/CommitCommand.php268-282

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Options

All options are defined in CommitCommand::configure() at app/Commands/CommitCommand.php132-190

--generator / -g

Property	Value
Short form	-g
Accepts	A single string value
Default	Value of generator key in resolved config (typically openai_chat)
Config key	generator

Selects the AI generator driver to use. The value must match a key in the generators array in config/ai-commit.php. Tab completion suggests valid values from configManager->get('generators', []).

For a list of available generator names, see 3.4

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--prompt / -p

Property	Value
Short form	-p
Accepts	A single string value
Default	Value of prompt key in resolved config (typically conventional)
Config key	prompt

Selects which named prompt template to use when constructing the request to the AI backend. The value must match a key in the prompts map. Tab completion suggests valid values from configManager->get('prompts', []).

For prompt template configuration, see 7.3

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--commit-options

Property	Value
Short form	none
Accepts	Multiple string values (repeatable)
Default	Value of commit_options in config (default: ["--edit"])
Config key	commit_options

Appends extra flags to the underlying git commit invocation. The full command constructed is git commit --message <message> [commit-options...]. See app/Commands/CommitCommand.php226-234

The --no-edit and --no-verify flags are appended on top of whatever this option contains.

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--diff-options

Property	Value
Short form	none
Accepts	Multiple string values (repeatable)
Default	Value of diff_options in config (default: [":!*-lock.json", ":!*.lock", ":!*.sum"])
Config key	diff_options

Appends extra flags to the git diff --cached command that collects the staged diff. The default exclusions prevent lock files from inflating the diff. See app/Commands/CommitCommand.php218-221

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--no-edit

Property	Value
Short form	none
Accepts	Flag (no value)
Default	false (or value of no_edit in config)
Config key	no_edit

When present, passes --no-edit to git commit, suppressing the editor that would normally open. If the terminal does not support TTY (Process::isTtySupported() returns false), --no-edit is automatically applied regardless of this flag. See app/Commands/CommitCommand.php284-292

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--no-verify

Property	Value
Short form	none
Accepts	Flag (no value)
Default	false (or value of no_verify in config)
Config key	no_verify

When present, passes --no-verify to git commit, bypassing pre-commit and commit-msg git hooks. See app/Commands/CommitCommand.php295-297

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--dry-run

Property	Value
Short form	none
Accepts	Flag (no value)
Default	false
Config key	none

Generates the commit message and prints it, but does not execute git commit. Useful for previewing what would be committed. See app/Commands/CommitCommand.php91-97

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--diff

Property	Value
Short form	none
Accepts	An optional string value
Default	none (falls back to running git diff --cached)
Config key	none

Allows passing diff content directly as a string, bypassing the git diff --cached subprocess entirely. Primarily useful for testing or scripted pipelines. See app/Commands/CommitCommand.php58-64

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--config / -c

Property	Value
Short form	-c
Accepts	An optional file path string
Default	none
Config key	none

Loads a custom JSON config file and merges it over the active configuration before the command runs. When provided, it also re-applies commit_options, diff_options, generator, and prompt values from that file into the current input options. See app/Commands/CommitCommand.php198-216

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Framework-Inherited Options

These options are provided by the Laravel Zero / Symfony Console foundation and apply to all commands.

Option	Description
-h, --help	Display command help
-q, --quiet	Suppress all output
-V, --version	Display application version
--ansi / --no-ansi	Force or disable ANSI color output
-n, --no-interaction	Disable all interactive prompts
--env[=ENV]	Set the application environment
-v / -vv / -vvv, --verbose	Increase output verbosity; -vvv (debug) will print each git command line before running it

Note: --verbose at debug level causes CommitCommand to output the full command string of every Process it creates. See app/Commands/CommitCommand.php278-280

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Option Resolution Diagram

The following diagram shows how the final value for each runtime option is resolved, from lowest to highest precedence.

Commit Option Value Resolution

Sources: app/Commands/CommitCommand.php132-216 app/ConfigManager.php62-80

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config Command

The config command is defined in app/Commands/ConfigCommand.php It manages the JSON config files used by ai-commit.

Usage:

ai-commit config <action> [<key>] [<value>] [options]

For full details on config file locations and the merge hierarchy, see 3.3

Arguments

Argument	Required	Description
action	Yes	One of: set, get, unset, reset, list, edit
key	No	Dot-notation config key (e.g. generators.openai_chat.api_key)
value	No	String or JSON value to assign

The ACTIONS constant is defined at app/Commands/ConfigCommand.php32

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Actions

Action	key required	value required	Description
set	Yes	Yes	Sets key to value and writes to the config file. JSON strings are decoded automatically.
get	No	No	Prints the value of key, or the entire config as JSON if key is omitted.
unset	Yes	No	Removes key from the config file.
reset	No	No	Resets key to its default value from config/ai-commit.php, or resets the entire config if key is omitted.
list	No	No	Prints all config entries in dot-notation format.
edit	No	No	Opens the config file in an interactive editor (auto-detected or specified via --editor).

The action dispatch logic is in ConfigCommand::handle() at app/Commands/ConfigCommand.php55-113

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Options

All options are defined in ConfigCommand::configure() at app/Commands/ConfigCommand.php152-162

--global / -g

Property	Value
Short form	-g
Accepts	Flag (no value)
Default	false

When present, applies the action to the global config file at ~/.ai-commit/.ai-commit.json (resolved by ConfigManager::globalPath()). When absent, the action targets the local .ai-commit.json in the current working directory.

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--file / -f

Property	Value
Short form	-f
Accepts	An optional file path string
Default	none

Specifies an explicit file path to operate on, overriding both the local and global defaults. Takes precedence over --global. See app/Commands/ConfigCommand.php177-188

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--editor / -e

Property	Value
Short form	-e
Accepts	An optional editor binary name or path
Default	Auto-detected from PATH

Used only with the edit action. Specifies the editor executable. If not provided, ConfigCommand searches for available editors in this priority order:

• Unix/macOS: editor, vim, vi, nano, pico, ed
• Windows: notepad

See app/Commands/ConfigCommand.php190-205

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Config Command Flow Diagram

ConfigCommand Action Dispatch

Sources: app/Commands/ConfigCommand.php55-113 app/Commands/ConfigCommand.php152-175

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Option-to-Config Key Mapping

The following table shows which config keys supply the default values for commit command options. When you set a config key, you permanently change the default for that option across all runs.

CLI Option	Config Key	Example Config Set Command
--generator	generator	config set generator moonshot
--prompt	prompt	config set prompt conventional
--commit-options	commit_options	config set commit_options '["--signoff"]'
--diff-options	diff_options	config set diff_options '[":!*.min.js"]'
--no-edit	no_edit	config set no_edit true
--no-verify	no_verify	config set no_verify true

Sources: app/Commands/CommitCommand.php132-190 config/ai-commit.php14-76

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Cross-Command Option Interaction Diagram

This diagram maps CLI flags to the code entities that consume them.

Flag → Code Entity Map

Sources: app/Commands/CommitCommand.php52-105 app/Commands/CommitCommand.php218-297 app/Commands/ConfigCommand.php55-205