How to enforce commit and pull request rules in Bitbucket Cloud with Better Commit Policy

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TL, DR:

We at Midori are excited to announce the launch of Better Commit Policy for Jira Cloud, along with its free companion app, the Better Commit Policy Connector for Bitbucket Cloud!

After years of success on Jira Data Center, we’ve rebuilt our solution for the cloud, empowering software teams to enforce rules for code change management.

Give them a try today!

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As more enterprise-sized teams are adopting Jira Cloud and cloud-based version control systems, the Better Commit Policy app family is ready to help with enforceable commit practices that improve traceability, compliance, developer collaboration, and code quality.

1. Use Better Commit Policy for Jira Cloud to access Jira context and enhance your commit policies by verifying work item statuses, assignees, and custom fields. This is a central app, managing the connections between Version Control Systems and your Jira Cloud.

2. Use Better Commit Policy Connector for Bitbucket Cloud to define and manage your commit policy in a "policy as code" style to catch non-compliant code changes before they are merged.

If you're wondering how to enforce commit message format in Bitbucket Cloud or how to enforce commit policies in Bitbucket Cloud, Better Commit Policy gives you a proven, audit-ready approach that integrates seamlessly with your Bitbucket Cloud pull request workflow.

Why high-performing tech leads rely on commit policies

DevEx is a popular topic of late. Discussions are all about how engineering managers can remove tool friction for developers and create processes that boost productivity.

This idea is compelling, but modern software teams need more than just CI/CD automation. They need governance from engineering managers who understand their teams' challenges while ensuring compliance with regulations and industry-specific requirements.

With the Better Commit Policy apps, you can:

✅ Ensure code change consistency – Enforce commit message rules that link work to Jira work items, improve traceability by checking for commit and pull request authors.

✅ Support audit-readiness – Establish a clear, automated trail of changes that supports internal reviews and external audits. With enforced rules and links to Jira work items, every change becomes accountable and traceable.

✅ Boost code quality – Commit policies create a structured and accountable environment where developers are motivated to adhere to quality standards, leading to fewer errors, less rework, and a higher overall standard of production code.

When commit messages follow naming conventions and link properly to Jira work items, every change is documented with a purpose. This builds a searchable, consistent history of why and how your product changed, making it easier to pass audits, onboard new developers, or conduct post-incident reviews.

This isn’t about adding friction—it’s about removing chaos. By nudging developers to follow pull request rules and commit message conventions, or even reference specific work item types, your teams build cleaner histories, foster collaboration, and avoid last-minute surprises during reviews.

They eliminate ambiguity: everyone on the team knows what a commit means and why it’s there. It also ensures that non-compliant code changes are caught early and never accepted into production code bases.

       Developer insights are never missing from important contexts if they are enforced

How commit policies improve code quality and developer accountability

As an engineering manager or tech lead, you will notice that over time, this consistency scales into measurable gains in code quality, traceability, and trust.

Commit policies encourage best practices like linking code changes to Jira work items, writing clear commit messages, and submitting code under verified author identities.

These small habits lead to better communication, cleaner histories, and easier debugging.

In fast-paced or highly regulated environments, these practices are crucial—not only for engineering velocity, but also for satisfying compliance and audit requirements.

How commit verification works in Bitbucket Cloud

Better Commit Policy applies a modern “x-as-code” approach, where commit policies are defined and maintained as version-controlled YAML configuration files, just like your source code. This ensures policies are transparent, easy to audit, and evolve alongside your development practices.

To enforce these policies, the Better Commit Policy Connector for Bitbucket Cloud provides a custom merge check called "Commit policy satisfied."

This merge check automatically verifies that all commits in a pull request, source and destination branches, as well as the pull request’s title and description, comply with the rules defined in your policy.

If the policy is not satisfied, the pull request cannot be merged until all violations are resolved, ensuring that only compliant, high-quality changes make it into your main branches.

Real-world impact from real teams

Better Commit Policy apps are already delivering results in mission-critical environments:

• EaglePicher Technologies uses Better Commit Policy to meet FAA traceability requirements in aerospace software development.

• Philips adopted commit policies to reduce errors and foster a culture of accountability and learning.

Make sure to check out their stories to learn from their experience in tracking code changes responsibly.

Get started today

• Better Commit Policy for Jira Cloud – The central app that connects your Jira Cloud instance with Version Control Systems like Bitbucket Cloud workspaces or repositories hosted on GitHub or GitLab (coming soon!). 

• Better Commit Policy Connector for Bitbucket Cloud – This is where you configure and enforce your commit policies. It defines rules like mandatory links to Jira work items, commit message patterns, author validations, and more. All validation logic happens here.

Whether you're a startup scaling fast or an enterprise navigating complex regulations, Better Commit Policy helps you gain control over your commits in the cloud.