How to remove Claude Code from Contributors? #197389
🏷️ Discussion TypeQuestion BodyI allowed Claude Code to create one commit. And this sneaky b*stard added himself as co-author. I remove him from the Git history. But he is still visible as a contributor. 
Will it disappear after 30 days, when GitHub will decide to purge (GC) detached commits from the server? |
Replies: 6 comments 9 replies
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Yeah this is a known thing Claude Code does, it adds itself as a co-author in the commit message automatically. The contributors list on GitHub is built directly from commit history, so even if you rewrote or removed that commit locally, GitHub has already cached it on their end. Simply rewriting git history doesn't update the contributors list immediately. To answer your question, yes it should eventually disappear once GitHub purges the dangling commit from their servers, but that timeline isn't guaranteed and can take a while. The more reliable way to handle it is to make sure the rewritten history is actually pushed correctly. If you did a rebase or amended the commit, you need to force push that branch so GitHub picks up the updated history. Once the original commit no longer exists anywhere in the remote repo and GitHub runs its cleanup, the contributor entry should go away. If it still shows up after all that, it might be worth raising it directly with GitHub support since the contributors list is supposed to reflect actual commit history. |
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I was told by GitHub staff that pruning dangling commits can take up to 30 days. That's why I'm asking. |
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No, I would not rely on a “30 day GitHub GC” timer. GitHub shows a person as a contributor if reachable commits on the repository, especially the default branch, still attribute them as author/co-author. A The fix is:
For a single bad commit: git fetch origin --prune --tags
git switch main
git pull --ff-only origin main
git rebase -i BAD_COMMIT_SHA^
# In the editor, change "pick" to "reword" for the bad commit.
# Remove the "Co-authored-by: Claude ..." line.
# Save and close.
git log --all --grep='Co-authored-by:.*Claude' --format='%h %s'
git push --force-with-lease origin main |
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That's not true; GitHub is showing a contribution for a commit that is not referenced by the repository. And yes, I know how to rewrite the history to get rid of the authors of the commit. |
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Fair enough, thanks for clarifying. If the commit is truly no longer referenced anywhere, then you’re right: this is probably not a history-rewrite issue anymore, but GitHub’s cached/internal contribution data still showing it. At that point there may not be much you can force from Git itself. I’d wait for GitHub’s cache to refresh, and if it still remains or the attribution is important to remove, contacting GitHub Support is probably the safest option. |
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GitHub’s contributor graph isn’t updated instantly and doesn’t rely solely on the current visible history. If you’ve already rewritten history and force-pushed the branch so that the Co-authored-by: line no longer exists in any reachable commit, then the contribution should eventually disappear. However, GitHub caches contributor statistics and rebuilds them periodically, so seeing the author listed immediately after rewriting history is normal. The 30-day garbage collection window is probably not the deciding factor here. The key question is whether any branch, tag, fork, or pull request still references a commit containing the co-author attribution. If such a reference exists, GitHub may continue to associate that user with the repository. I’d check: git log --all --grep="Co-authored-by" and verify that no branches or tags still contain those commits. If the co-authored commits are truly unreachable everywhere and GitHub has had time to refresh its contributor data, the contributor entry should eventually disappear. |
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were you ever able to get rid of it? |
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The magic fix is rename the main branch and back after rewrting the git history, it will force purge the Contributor cache |
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that fixed it! I just had to wait a little! |
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@wisecoder17 It's good to know that there is a hack like this. |
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yeah renaming the main branch and back after rewriting the git history helped me with the claude contributor cache |
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just give it prompt remove your co-author from my commits 😂 |
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This is not about the commits. That's trivial to remove. The problem is GitHub dangling commits that are not removed even if they are not part of the Git history anymore. |
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Great! Tnx |
GitHub’s contributor graph isn’t updated instantly and doesn’t rely solely on the current visible history.
If you’ve already rewritten history and force-pushed the branch so that the Co-authored-by: line no longer exists in any reachable commit, then the contribution should eventually disappear.
However, GitHub caches contributor statistics and rebuilds them periodically, so seeing the author listed immediately after rewriting history is normal.
The 30-day garbage collection window is probably not the deciding factor here. The key question is whether any branch, tag, fork, or pull request still references a commit containing the co-author attribution. If such a reference exists, GitHub ma…