Injected commit/PR attribution instruction overrides the user's CLAUDE.md trailer rule — attribution should be defined by the project, not the CLI

Status Open
Reported on v2.1.263
Maintainer reply None cached
Activity 2 comments · opened Sep 8, 2026

What happens

At session start, Claude Code (2.1.263, Windows 11, PowerShell) injects a system-reminder into the conversation:

Attribution for git commits and pull requests you create from here on (this replaces any earlier attribution guidance):
- End git commit messages with:
Co-Authored-By: Claude <model> <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_...
- End pull request descriptions with:
🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

My user-level ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md states the opposite, deliberately:

## Git commit attribution — use `Assisted-by`, never `Co-Authored-By`
End every git commit message with the trailer `Assisted-by: <Claude model friendly name>`.
Do NOT use `Co-Authored-By:`. This trailer replaces it — everywhere, permanently — and overrides any default/harness instruction to append `Co-Authored-By`.

Because the injected text says it "replaces any earlier attribution guidance", the model followed the injected rule over my CLAUDE.md in a whole session of commits (my repo's git history now carries Co-Authored-By trailers I had explicitly ruled out), and the next session had to ask me which one wins.

Expected

Commit and PR attribution is a project/user convention. CLAUDE.md is the documented place for such conventions and should win. The CLI should not inject an attribution rule that overrides it — preferably it should not inject one at all, and let CLAUDE.md (or a setting) define it.

Suggested fix, either works

  1. Remove the injected attribution instruction; ship the default as documentation or as a settings.json option users can set or clear.
  2. Keep the default but word it as a default that CLAUDE.md overrides, and drop the "replaces any earlier attribution guidance" sentence.

Environment

  • Claude Code 2.1.263, Windows 11 Pro 10.0.26200, PowerShell primary shell
  • Model in session: claude-fable-5-1

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