Yet Another Commit Checker (YACC) is one of the go-to solutions on Bitbucket Server/Data Center to enforce commit message and branch naming rules. YACC verifies patterns in commit messages, on authors and branch names, but it has no Bitbucket Cloud version. This article explains how to migrate from YACC to Bitbucket Cloud and introduces the best alternative: Better Commit Policy Connector for Bitbucket Cloud.
Better Commit Policy for Jira Cloud and its connector for Bitbucket Cloud fill this gap by bringing enterprise-grade commit and pull request enforcement to the cloud. It links Bitbucket Cloud (or other version control systems) to your Jira Cloud site and runs "policy-as-code" hooks (defined in a YAML file) to validate every commit and pull request against your rules.
When a change violates the policy, the merge is blocked, ensuring a clean, traceable commit history.
Better Commit Policy for Jira and Bitbucket Cloud offers a seamless, cloud-ready alternative for teams migrating from the Data Center version of Yet Another Commit Checker.
Commit message conventions
Better Commit Policy enables you to enforce organization-wide conventions for commit messages, ensuring consistency, and higher code quality across your development teams.
Just like you were doing checks in Yet Another Commit Checker, you can verify:
- Every commit message follows a precise format. For example, you can enforce a regular-expression (Regex) pattern so that messages start with a valid Jira work item key, contain specific keywords, or obey the 50/72 formatting rule.
- Commit message length. Ensure that each commit message is neither too short nor too long to maintain clear, descriptive commit messages without being overly verbose.
- Commits link to one or more Jira work items (e.g.
PROJ-\d+: .+to require a Jira work item key at the start). - Commit is made by a privileged user. You can skip checks when a message matches an "ignore" pattern, allowing you to streamline the pull request merge process for designated team members.
In effect, Better Commit Policy's commit message rules (format, length, work item links) replicate and extend the kinds of message checks Yet Another Commit Checker (YACC) offered, but do so in Bitbucket Cloud.
Clear path to migrate from YACC to Bitbucket Cloud
If you are migrating from Bitbucket Server or Data Center and used YACC, you can easily transition to Better Commit Policy Connector for Bitbucket Cloud. The app provides functionalities that allow you to set up commit message and pull request policies that mirror your existing YACC rules.
| Feature / Capability | YACC for Bitbucket Data Center | Better Commit Policy Connector for Bitbucket Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Enforce commit message format (regex) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Require Jira keys in commit message | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Verify Jira properties (e.g. status, assignee) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Enforce source and destination branch rules | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Implement pull request rules (title, description patterns) | ❌ No | ✅ Yes |
| Project-level or repository-level configuration | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| YAML-based policy as code | ❌ No | ✅ Yes |
| Native Bitbucket Cloud support | ❌ No (Server/DC only) | ✅ Yes |
| Integrated with Jira (via Better Commit Policy for Jira) | ❌ No | ✅ Yes |
Advanced pull request rules
In addition to commit messages, Better Commit Policy Connector for Bitbucket Cloud can apply rules to pull requests as well.
You can require that pull request titles and descriptions follow a specified format and include valid work item keys, ensuring consistency across your pull requests.
Once enabled, a custom merge check named "Commit policy satisfied" automatically scans each pull request. It inspects the title, description, source branch, destination branch, and all included commits against the policy. If any rule is broken, the merge is blocked.
This means your team can enforce pull request standards like:
- Feature branches must begin with a Jira work item key and a short description
- Pull request titles must follow a pattern, like TYPE: JIRA-123 – Short summary
- Pull request descriptions must have a minimum length and include a link to the Jira work item
If you use pull request templates in Bitbucket, you can verify if any edits made to the template still follow the required format.
Pull request checks cover every associated commit as well; the commit-level rules are enforced end-to-end, just like you used to with Yet Another Commit Checker merge checks.
Policy as code in Bitbucket Cloud
With the policy as code approach of Better Commit Policy Connector for Bitbucket Cloud, you manage policies like you manage the rest of your code base.
All commit rules, pull request rules, and additional checks are centralized in a version-controlled policy file (YAML) checked into your repository.
This makes it easy to audit and reuse rules across projects.
Yet Another Commit Checker provides excellent ways to alert developers when something is not right. You have the same capability in Bitbucket Cloud with Better Commit Policy Connector. You can customize rejection messages, so your team sees clear instructions (not raw regex errors) when a rule is violated.
Get started with Better Commit Policy Connector for Bitbucket Cloud
If you're migrating from Bitbucket Server to Cloud and previously used YACC (Yet Another Commit Checker), Better Commit Policy is the most complete cloud-native alternative.
Better Commit Policy for Jira Cloud and its free Bitbucket Cloud connector apps are now available on the Atlassian Marketplace to get you started.
Install both apps then configure your first commit policy. Just follow this simplified getting started guide:
- Install both Better Commit Policy apps: Install Better Commit Policy for Jira Cloud to your Jira Cloud site and then install the Better Commit Policy Connector for Bitbucket Cloud app.
- Connect it to your Bitbucket workspace following the instructions in the documentation (one-time setup).
- Add the custom merge check. Follow these instructions.
- Define the policy file. Create and add the commit policy file we looked at in the previous section to the repository. See instructions.
With Better Commit Policy in place, your Bitbucket Cloud repositories gain the same rigorous commit-message and PR standards that YACC provided on Server and Data Center, plus modern cloud-friendly features.
Better Commit Policy Connector for Bitbucket Cloud (Free)
