March 2, 2026
Commitment issues go AI
Intent-Based Commits
New tool logs your intentions, not code — fans hype, skeptics cry 'just write better messages'
TLDR: Ghost records your prompt as the commit while AI writes the code. The crowd is split between fans who want clearer intent and skeptics who say this is what good messages already do, with pragmatists asking why not use a simple hook instead.
Developers are debating a wild new idea: commit your intent, not your code. Meet Ghost, a command-line helper that saves your prompt (what you wanted) as the commit, then has an AI write the code. Your history becomes a diary of decisions, not just file changes. Think “Dear diary: refactor auth” energy.
The crowd instantly split. One camp is excited to finally see the why behind changes. Reviewers like sheept want prompts preserved so you can tell what was a human choice vs. AI “hallucination” — those made-up moments AIs sometimes produce. Another camp, led by a bewildered skeptic, argues Ghost is just repackaging what good commit messages already do. Cue the classic dev fight: innovation or reinventing the wheel with extra steps?
Pragmatists rolled in asking, “Cool… but why not do this with a simple commit hook?” Meanwhile, cautious voices worry the log could become unreadable “prompt soup,” saying it’s cute but hard to imagine actually reading. Fans counter that, when you’re lost in a codebase, having the exact instruction that shaped it is priceless — and reproducible.
Between jokes about “vibe-based version control” and “manifesting features,” the mood is clear: Ghost could be a clarity machine, or just AI glitter on normal practice. Either way, it’s drama devs can’t stop clicking.
Key Points
- •Ghost is a CLI wrapper around Claude Code that commits prompts and generated results instead of raw code diffs.
- •Each commit stores the prompt, model used, session UUID, and list of changed files, creating an intent-rich git history.
- •Ghost snapshots the working tree before/after generation, stages only modified/new files, and creates enriched commits.
- •Core commands include ghost init, ghost commit (with --model and --dry-run), ghost log, and bypassing via GHOST_SKIP=1.
- •Requirements include git 2.x+, configured claude CLI, bash 4+, and uuidgen; examples show typical prompts and use cases.