Commit messages that recap the diff file by file

Comments and text: one of the ways AI coding agents bloat software, from lessloc's pattern catalog. What lessloc does: The commit hook warns when a message lists the files the diff shows.

What makes commit messages that recap the diff file by file a bad practice?

The standard that calls it a bad practice: DRY: the diff already lists every file.

What does lessloc do about commit messages that recap the diff file by file?

The commit hook warns when a message lists the files the diff shows.

Related patterns

The other patterns in Comments and text:

• Comments that narrate what the code does: lessloc catches it as narration.
• Banners, dividers, closing-brace comments, emoji decoration: lessloc catches it as narration.
• Docs that restate the name: lessloc catches it as narration.
• History and messages to the requester: lessloc catches it as history.
• Comment blocks and comment-heavy changes: lessloc catches it as comment-block and comment-density.
• Log lines that narrate each step: lessloc catches it as narration (three or more in a file).
• Docs that still name what a change removed: lessloc catches it as stale-doc.
• Summary, report and notes files: lessloc catches it as junk-file and refuses it before it lands.
• Doc files and README growth nobody asked for: lessloc catches it as unrequested-doc.
• Docs deleted wholesale to shrink a change: lessloc catches it as doc-removed.
• Always-loaded instructions that grow: lessloc catches it as long-instructions.