Why Claude Appears in Your GitHub Contributors — and How to Fix It

These days, many developers use Claude Code to edit code locally and then go straight to git commit → git push.

At some point, you might notice something strange on your GitHub repository:

Claude is listed in the Contributors.

At first, it feels like a bug — but it turns out this is completely expected behavior.

In this post, I’ll explain:

• why this happens,
• when it can be a problem,
• and how to cleanly disable it (globally or per project).

Why This Happens

When Claude Code helps generate or modify code, it can automatically add Co-authored-by information to the Git commit message.

If a commit message contains a line like this:

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>"
Create initial commit with project setup

GitHub treats Claude as a co-author and includes it in the Contributors list.

In other words:

• you made the commit,
• you’re responsible for the code,
• but GitHub uses commit metadata, not intent.

This is not a bug — it’s how GitHub works.

Why This Can Be Uncomfortable

This behavior isn’t inherently bad, but it can feel awkward in certain cases:

• Personal projects where you want Contributors to reflect actual people
• Company or open-source repositories where contributor attribution matters
• Situations where you don’t want AI usage visible in commit history

Because of this, many developers choose to disable automatic Co-authored-by entries.

Solution 1: Disable It Globally

If you never want Claude to appear as a co-author in any project, a global setting is the simplest option.

You can just ask Claude Code something like:

Add includeCoAuthoredBy=false to my global settings

Claude will locate the correct global config file and update it automatically.

$ cat ~/.claude/settings.json
{
  "enabledPlugins": {
    "claude-mem@thedotmack": true
  },
  "alwaysThinkingEnabled": true,
  "includeCoAuthoredBy": false --> (*)
}

After this, Claude will no longer appear in Contributors for any repository.

Solution 2: Disable It Per Project (Recommended)

If you prefer finer control, a project-level setting is usually the best choice.

In your project root, create or update the following file:

.claude/settings.local.json

Add this option:

{
  "includeCoAuthoredBy": false
}

With this approach:

• the setting applies only to this repository,
• other projects remain unaffected.

For team or company codebases, this is generally the safest option.

If You’re Already Using permissions

If your settings.local.json already includes permissions, you can simply add the option alongside them:

{
  "includeCoAuthoredBy": false,
  "permissions": {
    "allow": []
  }
}

When You Should Keep It Enabled

There are also cases where leaving this enabled makes sense:

• Open-source projects where AI collaboration should be transparent
• Experimental or learning repositories
• Teams that value explicit AI attribution

There’s no single “correct” answer — it depends on the project.

Summary

• Claude Code may automatically add Co-authored-by to commits
• GitHub uses this metadata to calculate Contributors
• You can disable it with includeCoAuthoredBy=false
• Choose between global or project-level configuration

AI coding tools are becoming part of everyday development.
The key question isn’t whether to use them — but how you want that usage to be recorded.

Use them as much as you like, just make sure the metadata matches your intent.