EXAMPLE COMMIT MESSAGES: EXCELLENT
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These messages follow the Conventional Commits format (type(scope): summary)
and include a body when the reason behind the change is not obvious from the summary alone.
This style is common in professional open source and industry projects.
Format: type(scope): short summary
        [blank line]
        Longer explanation of WHY, not just what. What problem does this solve?
        What would happen if this change were not made?

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What changed:
  Fixed the bug where logging in with a mixed-case email address failed.
  User@Email.com and user@email.com were being treated as two different accounts.

Commit message used:

  fix(auth): treat email addresses as case-insensitive during login

  Email addresses are case-insensitive by RFC 5321 standard, but the login
  query was doing a case-sensitive string match. This caused users to be
  locked out if they registered with one casing and later typed another.
  Normalizes all email input to lowercase before querying the database.

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What changed:
  Added a search bar to the user directory that shows live results as the user types,
  pulling from the users API with a debounce delay to avoid flooding the server.

Commit message used:

  feat(search): add real-time user directory search with 300ms debounce

  Adds a search input to /users that filters results live as the user types.
  Debounced at 300ms to prevent an API call on every keystroke. Returns the
  top 20 matches ranked by relevance. Closes #47.

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What changed:
  Added platform-specific setup instructions and environment variable documentation to the README.

Commit message used:

  docs(readme): add setup instructions for Mac, Windows, Linux and env var reference

  The README previously had no install steps, which meant new contributors
  had to ask for help or guess. Adds step-by-step instructions for all three
  platforms and a table of all required environment variables with descriptions
  and example values. Removes outdated references to the deprecated jwt-simple library.

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What changed:
  Fixed a z-index and positioning issue that caused the sticky navbar to overlap page content
  on small screens.

Commit message used:

  fix(ui): resolve navbar overlap on viewports narrower than 768px

  The sticky navbar was being rendered above the main content on mobile due to
  a missing z-index on the content container. Added z-index: 1 to .main-content
  and adjusted top padding to account for the navbar height at each breakpoint.

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What changed:
  Broke a 400-line database.py into three smaller, focused modules.

Commit message used:

  refactor(db): split database.py into models, queries, and connection modules

  database.py had grown to 400 lines mixing data models, raw SQL, and connection
  management, making it hard to test any one part in isolation. No behavior changes.
  Splitting into three modules makes each piece easier to read, test, and update
  independently. All imports updated across the codebase.

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