Exit Codes - Commitizen
Skip to content

Exit Codes

Commitizen handles expected exceptions through CommitizenException and returns different exit codes for different situations. This reference is useful when you need to ignore specific errors in your CI/CD pipeline or automation scripts.

All exit codes are defined in commitizen/exceptions.py.

Exit Code Reference

Exception Exit Code Description
ExpectedExit 0 Expected exit
DryRunExit 0 Exit due to passing --dry-run option
NoCommitizenFoundException 1 Using a cz (e.g., cz_jira) that cannot be found in your system
NotAGitProjectError 2 Not in a git project
NoCommitsFoundError 3 No commits found
NoVersionSpecifiedError 4 Version is not specified in configuration file
NoPatternMapError 5 bump / changelog pattern or map can not be found in configuration file
BumpCommitFailedError 6 Commit failed when bumping version
BumpTagFailedError 7 Tag failed when bumping version
NoAnswersError 8 No user response given
CommitError 9 git commit error
NoCommitBackupError 10 Commit backup file is not found
NothingToCommitError 11 Nothing in staging to be committed
CustomError 12 CzException raised
NoCommandFoundError 13 No command found when running Commitizen cli (e.g., cz --debug)
InvalidCommitMessageError 14 The commit message does not pass cz check
MissingConfigError 15 Configuration is missing for cz_customize
NoRevisionError 16 No revision found
CurrentVersionNotFoundError 17 Current version cannot be found in version_files
InvalidCommandArgumentError 18 The argument provided to the command is invalid (e.g. cz check -commit-msg-file filename --rev-range master..)
InvalidConfigurationError 19 An error was found in the Commitizen Configuration, such as duplicates in change_type_order
NotAllowed 20 Invalid combination of command line / configuration file options
NoneIncrementExit 21 The commits found are not eligible to be bumped
CharacterSetDecodeError 22 The character encoding of the command output could not be determined
GitCommandError 23 Unexpected failure while calling a git command
InvalidManualVersion 24 Manually provided version is invalid
InitFailedError 25 Failed to initialize pre-commit
RunHookError 26 An error occurred during a hook execution
VersionProviderUnknown 27 Unknown version_provider
VersionSchemeUnknown 28 Unknown version_scheme
ChangelogFormatUnknown 29 Unknown changelog_format or cannot be determined by the file extension
ConfigFileNotFound 30 The configuration file is not found
ConfigFileIsEmpty 31 The configuration file is empty
CommitMessageLengthLimitExceededError 32 The commit message length exceeds the given limit.

Ignoring Exit Codes

In some scenarios, you may want Commitizen to continue execution even when certain errors occur. This is particularly useful in CI/CD pipelines where you want to handle specific errors gracefully.

Using --no-raise Flag

The --no-raise (or -nr) flag allows you to specify exit codes that should not cause Commitizen to exit with an error. You can use either:

  • Exit code numbers: 21, 3, 4
  • Exit code names: NO_INCREMENT, NO_COMMITS_FOUND, NO_VERSION_SPECIFIED
  • Mixed format: 21,NO_COMMITS_FOUND,4

Multiple exit codes can be specified as a comma-separated list.

Common Use Cases

Ignoring No Increment Errors

The most common use case is to ignore NoneIncrementExit (exit code 21) when running cz bump. This allows the command to succeed even when no commits are eligible for a version bump:

cz -nr 21 bump

Or using the exit code name:

cz -nr NO_INCREMENT bump

This is useful in CI pipelines where you want to run cz bump regularly, but don't want the pipeline to fail when there are no version-worthy commits.

Ignoring Multiple Exit Codes

You can ignore multiple exit codes at once:

cz --no-raise 21,3,4 bump

This example ignores:

  • 21 (NoneIncrementExit) - No eligible commits for bump
  • 3 (NoCommitsFoundError) - No commits found
  • 4 (NoVersionSpecifiedError) - Version not specified

Finding the Exit Code

If you encounter an error and want to ignore it, you can find the exit code in two ways:

Method 1: Check the Exit Code After Running

After running a Commitizen command that fails, check the exit code:

cz bump
echo $?  # Prints the exit code (e.g., 21)

Then use that exit code with --no-raise:

cz -nr 21 bump

Method 2: Look Up the Exception

  1. Check the error message to identify the exception type
  2. Find the corresponding exit code in the table above
  3. Use that exit code with --no-raise

For example, if you see NoneIncrementExit in the error, look it up in the table to find it's exit code 21, then use:

cz -nr 21 bump

Best Practices

  • Document your usage: If you use --no-raise in scripts or CI/CD, document why specific exit codes are ignored
  • Be specific: Only ignore exit codes you understand and have a reason to ignore
  • Test thoroughly: Ensure that ignoring certain exit codes doesn't mask real problems in your workflow
  • Use exit code names: When possible, use exit code names (e.g., NO_INCREMENT) instead of numbers for better readability

Example: CI/CD Pipeline

Here's an example of using --no-raise in a CI/CD pipeline:

# .github/workflows/release.yml
- name: Bump version
  run: |
    cz -nr NO_INCREMENT bump || true
    # Continue even if no version bump is needed

This ensures the pipeline continues even when there are no commits eligible for a version bump.