[DOCS] Clarify precedence and interaction between deprecated `includeCoAuthoredBy` and `attribution` settings

Resolved 💬 4 comments Opened Jan 19, 2026 by coygeek Closed Feb 27, 2026

Documentation Type

Unclear/confusing documentation

Documentation Location

https://code.claude.com/docs/en/settings

Section/Topic

The Available settings table under the settings.json section.

Current Documentation

In the table row for includeCoAuthoredBy:

Deprecated: Use attribution instead. Whether to include the co-authored-by Claude byline in git commits and pull requests (default: true)

What's Wrong or Missing?

While the documentation correctly marks the setting as deprecated, listing the default as simply true is misleading in the context of the new attribution setting.

The "Attribution settings" section later clarifies that "attribution setting takes precedence over the deprecated includeCoAuthoredBy setting," but a user reading the main settings table might mistakenly believe that setting includeCoAuthoredBy: false is sufficient to disable attribution, or they may be confused about which default behavior actually wins if both (or neither) are set.

Suggested Improvement

Update the description in the Available settings table to explicitly mention that attribution overrides this boolean.

Suggested text:

Deprecated: Use attribution instead. Whether to include the co-authored-by Claude byline. Note: The attribution setting takes precedence over this value. (Legacy default: true)

Impact

High - Prevents users from using a feature

Additional Context

  • The precedence logic is currently explained well in the Attribution settings section further down the page, but users scanning the main configuration table may miss that context.
  • Clarifying this in the table helps users migrating from older configuration files understand why their legacy boolean might be ignored.

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