Developing software generates a complex history of changes. We commit iterations with messages like “Modify feature after UX design feedback” or “Update logic with new business requirements”. The understanding we have gained at the moment of a commit is valuable. How much of it will we remember? Will we be available when someone reading the code later has questions? Is our code as self explanatory as we want to believe? Investing in better collaboration means we don’t let that valuable context slip away to be buried and lost forever. A longer well-written commit message has the potential to represent our current best understanding about a code change. Unlike other documentation, what we write in a commit is coupled to the code — and it will never get outdated. Let me show why and how we can contribute to a Git history worth reading to help understand our code base.