Commit Messages

Outstatic creates Git commits when content, media, or configuration files are changed from the dashboard.

These commits use a predictable format so they are easy to read in Git history and easy to detect in deployment tools like Vercel or GitHub Actions.

Format

Outstatic commit messages use this format:

action status/target "label" [outstatic:scope]

Example:

update draft "Introducing Outstatic" [outstatic:content]

The message has two parts:

1. A readable action, such as update draft "Introducing Outstatic"
2. An Outstatic metadata tag, such as [outstatic:content]

The metadata tag is always at the end of the message.

Scopes

Outstatic uses three scopes.

Content Messages

Content messages are used when Markdown or MDX files are created, edited, published, unpublished, or deleted.

Create draft

create draft "Post title" [outstatic:content]

A new draft was created.

Update draft

update draft "Post title" [outstatic:content]

An existing draft was edited.

This is useful for deployment automation because draft-only changes often do not need to trigger a production build.

Update published content

update published "Post title" [outstatic:content]

A published content item was edited.

This usually should trigger a deployment because the public site may need to update.

Publish content

publish "Post title" [outstatic:content]

A draft was published.

This usually should trigger a deployment because a new page or updated page may need to go live.

Unpublish content

unpublish "Post title" [outstatic:content]

A published item was unpublished.

This usually should trigger a deployment because the public site may need to remove or hide the page.

Delete draft

delete draft "Post title" [outstatic:content]

A draft was deleted.

This may not need to trigger a deployment.

Delete published content

delete published "Post title" [outstatic:content]

A published item was deleted.

This usually should trigger a deployment because the public site may need to remove the page.

Media Messages

Media messages are used when files such as images are uploaded, changed, or deleted.

Upload media

upload media "hero.jpg" [outstatic:media]

A media file was uploaded.

This may not need to trigger a deployment by itself. For example, an editor may upload an image first, then link it inside a document in a later save.

Update media

update media "hero.jpg" [outstatic:media]

A media file was updated or replaced.

Whether this should trigger a deployment depends on how the site serves media.

Delete media

delete media "old-image.png" [outstatic:media]

A media file was deleted.

Whether this should trigger a deployment depends on whether published pages reference that file.

Config Messages

Config messages are used when Outstatic configuration changes.

Update collections

update collections [outstatic:config]

Collection settings changed.

This usually should trigger a deployment because schemas, routes, or generated pages may be affected.

Update settings

update settings [outstatic:config]

Outstatic settings changed.

Whether this should trigger a deployment depends on the setting.

Update media index

update media-index [outstatic:config]

The internal media.json manifest was rebuilt. This is tagged as config rather than media because the file is an index, not a user-uploaded asset — sites that read media.json at build time should still rebuild on these commits.

Vercel Automation

Vercel automatically builds and deploys commits pushed to the production branch.

When editors make several Outstatic changes in a row, this can create multiple deployments. For example:

1. Upload media
2. Save a draft
3. Link the media inside the document
4. Publish the document

You can use Vercel's Ignore Build Step to skip builds for commits that do not need to deploy.

Vercel exposes the commit message through:

VERCEL_GIT_COMMIT_MESSAGE

Example: Ignore Draft and Media Changes

This example ignores draft-only content changes and media-only changes.

#!/bin/bash
 
COMMIT_MESSAGE="$VERCEL_GIT_COMMIT_MESSAGE"
 
case "$COMMIT_MESSAGE" in
  *"[outstatic:content]"*)
    if [[ "$COMMIT_MESSAGE" == create\ draft* || "$COMMIT_MESSAGE" == update\ draft* || "$COMMIT_MESSAGE" == delete\ draft* ]]; then
      echo "Ignoring Outstatic draft-only content change"
      exit 0
    fi
 
    echo "Building Outstatic published content change"
    exit 1
    ;;
 
  *"[outstatic:media]"*)
    echo "Ignoring Outstatic media-only change"
    exit 0
    ;;
 
  *)
    echo "Building"
    exit 1
    ;;
esac

In Vercel Ignore Build Step:

• exit 0 means ignore the build
• exit 1 means continue with the build

Example: Only Build Published Content Changes

This example builds only when published content changes, content is published, content is unpublished, published content is deleted, or config changes.

#!/bin/bash
 
COMMIT_MESSAGE="$VERCEL_GIT_COMMIT_MESSAGE"
 
case "$COMMIT_MESSAGE" in
  publish\ *"[outstatic:content]"*)
    echo "Building published content change"
    exit 1
    ;;
 
  unpublish\ *"[outstatic:content]"*)
    echo "Building unpublished content change"
    exit 1
    ;;
 
  update\ published\ *"[outstatic:content]"*)
    echo "Building published content update"
    exit 1
    ;;
 
  delete\ published\ *"[outstatic:content]"*)
    echo "Building published content deletion"
    exit 1
    ;;
 
  *"[outstatic:config]"*)
    echo "Building Outstatic config change"
    exit 1
    ;;
 
  *"[outstatic:content]"* | *"[outstatic:media]"*)
    echo "Ignoring Outstatic draft or media-only change"
    exit 0
    ;;
 
  *)
    echo "Building non-Outstatic commit"
    exit 1
    ;;
esac

Example: GitHub Actions Detection

The same format can be used in GitHub Actions.

name: Detect Outstatic Commit
 
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
 
jobs:
  detect:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Check commit message
        run: |
          COMMIT_MESSAGE="${{ github.event.head_commit.message }}"
 
          if [[ "$COMMIT_MESSAGE" == *"[outstatic:content]"* ]]; then
            echo "Outstatic content commit"
          elif [[ "$COMMIT_MESSAGE" == *"[outstatic:media]"* ]]; then
            echo "Outstatic media commit"
          elif [[ "$COMMIT_MESSAGE" == *"[outstatic:config]"* ]]; then
            echo "Outstatic config commit"
          else
            echo "Not an Outstatic commit"
          fi

Notes

The Outstatic metadata tag is intentionally placed at the end of the message.

This keeps commit history readable while still allowing scripts to detect Outstatic commits reliably.