jesseduffield/lazygit · warning

You cannot commit without a commit message

Error message

You cannot commit without a commit message

What it means

Returned by CommitsHelper.HandleCommitConfirm when the user confirms the commit-message panel but the summary line is empty (after TrimSpace). lazygit refuses to create a commit with no subject because git itself requires a non-empty message unless -m '' --allow-empty-message is used deliberately; the description alone is not enough.

Source

Thrown at pkg/gui/controllers/helpers/commits_helper.go:186

	if initialMessageIsPreserved {
		self.SetPreservedMessageInView(initialMessage)
	} else {
		self.SetMessageAndDescriptionInView(initialMessage)
	}

	self.c.Context().Push(self.c.Contexts().CommitMessage, types.OnFocusOpts{})
}

func (self *CommitsHelper) ClearPreservedCommitMessage() {
	self.c.Contexts().CommitMessage.SetPreservedMessageAndLogError("")
}

func (self *CommitsHelper) HandleCommitConfirm() error {
	summary, description := self.getCommitSummary(), self.getCommitDescription()

	if strings.TrimSpace(summary) == "" {
		return errors.New(self.c.Tr.CommitWithoutMessageErr)
	}

	err := self.c.Contexts().CommitMessage.OnConfirm(summary, description)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	return nil
}

func (self *CommitsHelper) PreserveCommitMessage() {
	if self.c.Contexts().CommitMessage.GetPreserveMessage() {
		message := self.JoinCommitMessageAndUnwrappedDescription()
		if message != self.c.Contexts().CommitMessage.GetInitialMessage() {
			self.c.Contexts().CommitMessage.SetPreservedMessageAndLogError(message)
		}
	}
}

View on GitHub (pinned to c477a2959b)

Solutions

1. Type a non-empty summary on the first line of the commit panel, then confirm.
2. Use Esc to abandon the commit instead of confirming an empty message.
3. If you intended a message-less commit, that is unsupported by design; write a summary.

// before confirming the panel:
if strings.TrimSpace(summary) == "" {
    // abort silently (Esc semantics) instead of confirming
}

When it happens

Trigger: Opening the commit message panel (c) and pressing Enter with an empty or whitespace-only summary, e.g. relying only on the description body, or after clearing a prefilled message to abort-but-actually-confirm.

Common situations: Users pressing Enter to 'close' the panel instead of Esc; template/prefix auto-fill producing an empty effective summary; clipboard paste landing in the description field instead of the summary.

Related errors

• No files staged
• Must specify a remote if specifying a branch
• Expected renamed file
• No changed files
• Invalid upstream. Must be in the format '<remote> <branchnam

AI-assisted analysis of jesseduffield/lazygit@c477a2959b (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ff4b25450012fd72. Report an issue: GitHub.