no-coAuthor

Git hook that automatically strips AI co-author lines from your commit messages.

Stop Claude, Copilot, GPT, and other AI tools from showing up as contributors on your GitHub commits.

Why this exists

Some AI coding tools add Co-Authored-By lines to your commits automatically. A few offer settings to disable it, but those settings are unreliable:

| Tool | Adds Co-Authored-By? | Built-in disable? | Reliable? | |------|---------------------|-------------------|-----------| | Claude Code | Yes | attribution in settings.json | No -- 10+ open bugs, setting ignored intermittently | | Cursor | Yes | Settings > Agent > Attribution | No -- IDE updates silently re-enable it | | Copilot Agent | Yes (agent becomes commit author) | No setting exists | N/A | | Gemini Code Assist | Yes on PR suggestions | No granular setting | N/A |

no-coauthor is a git-level safety net. It runs inside git itself, not inside the AI tool, so it catches everything regardless of which tool added it or whether settings are configured correctly.

Use both together: Configure your AI tool's built-in setting (prevention) AND install no-coauthor (enforcement). Belt and suspenders.

Configure built-in settings (complementary)

Claude Code -- Add to ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "attribution": {
    "commit": "",
    "pr": ""
  }
}

Cursor -- Go to Settings > Agent > Attribution and disable it. Re-check after updates.

Copilot Agent / Gemini Code Assist -- No built-in setting. no-coauthor is your only option.

Install

npm (recommended)

# Per-project
npx no-coauthor install

# Global (all repos on your machine)
npx no-coauthor install --global

Bun

bunx no-coauthor install
bunx no-coauthor install --global

curl (auto-detects Node.js, falls back to POSIX shell)

# Per-project (run inside a git repo)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/0xdsgnrd/no-coauthor/main/install.sh | sh

# Global
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/0xdsgnrd/no-coauthor/main/install.sh | sh -s -- --global

Manual

git clone https://github.com/0xdsgnrd/no-coauthor.git
cd no-coauthor
bash install.sh

What it catches

Strips Co-Authored-By lines mentioning any of these AI tools:

• Claude, Anthropic
• Copilot, GitHub Copilot
• GPT, ChatGPT, OpenAI
• Gemini, Bard
• Cursor
• Codeium, Windsurf
• Tabnine
• Amazon Q, CodeWhisperer

Human co-authors are always kept.

Before

feat: add user authentication

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <[email protected]>
Co-Authored-By: Jane Doe <[email protected]>

After

feat: add user authentication

Co-Authored-By: Jane Doe <[email protected]>

Uninstall

# Per-project
npx no-coauthor uninstall

# Global
npx no-coauthor uninstall --global

No Node.js? No problem

By default, the hook uses Node.js for better regex support. If Node.js isn't available, it automatically falls back to a POSIX shell hook that works on any system with /bin/sh and grep. Zero dependencies.

# Force the shell version
npx no-coauthor install --no-node

# Or via curl
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/0xdsgnrd/no-coauthor/main/install.sh | sh -s -- --no-node

How it works

The hook runs before each commit is finalized:

1. Reads the commit message file (passed by git as $1)
2. Removes lines matching Co-Authored-By: <AI tool name>
3. Cleans up extra blank lines
4. Writes the message back

It runs in milliseconds and doesn't touch anything else in your commit.

Existing hooks

If you already have a commit-msg hook, no-coauthor appends to it instead of overwriting. Uninstall cleanly removes only the appended section.

License

MIT