How to Set Semantic Commit Messages for Dependency Updates

You can make every dependency update follow Conventional Commits: Dependabot uses commit-message.prefix and Renovate uses semanticCommits with a configurable type and scope.

Semantic commits like chore(deps): bump lodash to 4.17.21 keep changelogs and release tooling tidy. Dependabot configures this with a commit-message block; Renovate configures it with semanticCommits and semanticCommitType/semanticCommitScope.

Dependabot

version: 2
updates:
  - package-ecosystem: "npm"
    directory: "/"
    schedule:
      interval: "weekly"
    commit-message:
      prefix: "chore"
      prefix-development: "chore(dev)"
      include: "scope"

Renovate

{
  "extends": ["config:recommended"],
  "semanticCommits": "enabled",
  "semanticCommitType": "chore",
  "semanticCommitScope": "deps"
}

Gotchas

• Dependabot include: "scope" appends the dependency name in the commit scope, for example chore(deps).
• If your release automation infers versions from commit types, keep dependency bumps as chore so they do not trigger releases unexpectedly.
• Renovate semanticCommits accepts "enabled" or "disabled" as strings, not booleans.

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