diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index ef01725206..9515935270 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -466,6 +466,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "git2",
  "glob",
  "indexmap",
+ "lazy-regex",
  "pretty_assertions",
  "regex",
  "rust-embed",
@@ -631,6 +632,29 @@ dependencies = [
  "wasm-bindgen",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "lazy-regex"
+version = "2.3.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "b6b12f2eb6ed7d39405c5eb25a034b4c106a9ad87a6d9be3298de6c5f32fd57d"
+dependencies = [
+ "lazy-regex-proc_macros",
+ "once_cell",
+ "regex",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "lazy-regex-proc_macros"
+version = "2.3.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "f2496e5264069bc726ccf37eb76b9cd89406ae110d836c3f76729f99c8a23293"
+dependencies = [
+ "proc-macro2",
+ "quote",
+ "regex",
+ "syn",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "lazy_static"
 version = "1.4.0"
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 0bdc3e27ba..395235b0a0 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -245,6 +245,8 @@ git cliff --with-commit "$commit_msg" -o CHANGELOG.md
 git add CHANGELOG.md && git commit -m "$commit_msg"
 ```
 
+> The commit SHA will be empty as default when `--with-commit` is used. Specify the hash with a message separated by single whitespace for setting the commit SHA. e.g. "--with-commit "8f55e69eba6e6ce811ace32bd84cc82215673cb6 feat: add X""
+
 Sort the commits inside sections:
 
 ```sh
diff --git a/git-cliff-core/Cargo.toml b/git-cliff-core/Cargo.toml
index a9598904bf..260c773913 100644
--- a/git-cliff-core/Cargo.toml
+++ b/git-cliff-core/Cargo.toml
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ serde_regex = "1.1.0"
 indexmap = "1.9.1"
 toml = "0.5.9"
 glob = "0.3.0"
+lazy-regex = "2.3.0"
 
 [dependencies.git2]
 version = "0.14.4"
diff --git a/git-cliff-core/src/commit.rs b/git-cliff-core/src/commit.rs
index 330edd1fbf..2f3fc1a239 100644
--- a/git-cliff-core/src/commit.rs
+++ b/git-cliff-core/src/commit.rs
@@ -11,12 +11,21 @@ use crate::error::{
 };
 use git2::Commit as GitCommit;
 use git_conventional::Commit as ConventionalCommit;
+use lazy_regex::{
+	lazy_regex,
+	Lazy,
+	Regex,
+};
 use serde::ser::{
 	Serialize,
 	SerializeStruct,
 	Serializer,
 };
 
+/// Regular expression for matching SHA1 and a following commit message
+/// separated by a whitespace.
+static SHA1_REGEX: Lazy<Regex> = lazy_regex!(r#"^\b([a-f0-9]{40})\b (.*)$"#);
+
 /// Common commit object that is parsed from a repository.
 #[derive(Debug, Clone, PartialEq, serde::Deserialize)]
 #[serde(rename_all = "camelCase")]
@@ -78,6 +87,20 @@ impl<'a> From<&'a git_conventional::Footer<'a>> for Footer<'a> {
 	}
 }
 
+impl<'a> From<String> for Commit<'a> {
+	fn from(s: String) -> Self {
+		if let Some(captures) = SHA1_REGEX.captures(&s) {
+			if let (Some(id), Some(message)) = (
+				captures.get(1).map(|v| v.as_str()),
+				captures.get(2).map(|v| v.as_str()),
+			) {
+				return Commit::new(id.to_string(), message.to_string());
+			}
+		}
+		Commit::new(String::new(), s)
+	}
+}
+
 impl<'a> From<&GitCommit<'a>> for Commit<'a> {
 	fn from(commit: &GitCommit<'a>) -> Self {
 		Self::new(
@@ -454,4 +477,37 @@ mod test {
 		);
 		Ok(())
 	}
+
+	#[test]
+	fn parse_commit() {
+		assert_eq!(
+			Commit::new(String::new(), String::from("test: no sha1 given")),
+			Commit::from(String::from("test: no sha1 given"))
+		);
+		assert_eq!(
+			Commit::new(
+				String::from("8f55e69eba6e6ce811ace32bd84cc82215673cb6"),
+				String::from("feat: do something")
+			),
+			Commit::from(String::from(
+				"8f55e69eba6e6ce811ace32bd84cc82215673cb6 feat: do something"
+			))
+		);
+		assert_eq!(
+			Commit::new(
+				String::from("3bdd0e690c4cd5bd00e5201cc8ef3ce3fb235853"),
+				String::from("chore: do something")
+			),
+			Commit::from(String::from(
+				"3bdd0e690c4cd5bd00e5201cc8ef3ce3fb235853 chore: do something"
+			))
+		);
+		assert_eq!(
+			Commit::new(
+				String::new(),
+				String::from("thisisinvalidsha1 style: add formatting")
+			),
+			Commit::from(String::from("thisisinvalidsha1 style: add formatting"))
+		);
+	}
 }
diff --git a/git-cliff/src/lib.rs b/git-cliff/src/lib.rs
index 63ba51aa44..467bbaf558 100644
--- a/git-cliff/src/lib.rs
+++ b/git-cliff/src/lib.rs
@@ -261,10 +261,8 @@ pub fn run(mut args: Opt) -> Result<()> {
 	// Add custom commit messages to the latest release.
 	if let Some(custom_commits) = args.with_commit {
 		if let Some(latest_release) = releases.iter_mut().last() {
-			custom_commits.iter().for_each(|commit_message| {
-				latest_release
-					.commits
-					.push(Commit::new(String::new(), commit_message.to_string()))
+			custom_commits.into_iter().for_each(|message| {
+				latest_release.commits.push(Commit::from(message))
 			});
 		}
 	}