Creating a commit with multiple authors

You can attribute a commit to more than one author by adding one or more Co-authored-by trailers to the commit's message. Co-authored commits are visible on GitHub.

In this article

Required co-author information

Before you can add a co-author to a commit, you must know the appropriate email to use for each co-author. For the co-author's commit to count as a contribution, you must use the email associated with their account on GitHub.com.

If a person chooses to keep their email address private, you should use their GitHub-provided no-reply email to protect their privacy. Otherwise, the co-author's email will be available to the public in the commit message. If you want to keep your email private, you can choose to use a GitHub-provided no-reply email for Git operations and ask other co-authors to list your no-reply email in commit trailers.

For more information, see "Setting your commit email address."

Tip

You can help a co-author find their preferred email address by sharing this information:

  • To find your GitHub-provided no-reply email, navigate to your email settings page under "Keep my email address private."
  • To find the email you used to configure Git on your computer, run git config user.email on the command line.

Creating co-authored commits using GitHub Desktop

You can use GitHub Desktop to create a commit with a co-author. For more information, see "Committing and reviewing changes to your project in GitHub Desktop" and GitHub Desktop.

Creating co-authored commits on the command line

  1. Collect the name and email address for each co-author. If a person chooses to keep their email address private, you should use their GitHub-provided no-reply email to protect their privacy.

  2. Type your commit message and a short, meaningful description of your changes. After your commit description, instead of a closing quotation, add two empty lines.

    $ git commit -m "Refactor usability tests.
>
>

    Tip

    If you're using a text editor on the command line to type your commit message, ensure there are two newlines between the end of your commit description and the Co-authored-by: commit trailer.

  3. On the next line of the commit message, type Co-authored-by: name <name@example.com> with specific information for each co-author. After the co-author information, add a closing quotation mark.

    If you're adding multiple co-authors, give each co-author their own line and Co-authored-by: commit trailer. Do not add blank lines between each co-author line.

    $ git commit -m "Refactor usability tests.
>
>
Co-authored-by: NAME <NAME@EXAMPLE.COM>
Co-authored-by: ANOTHER-NAME <ANOTHER-NAME@EXAMPLE.COM>"

The new commit and message will appear on GitHub.com the next time you push. For more information, see "Pushing commits to a remote repository."

Creating co-authored commits on GitHub

After you've made changes in a file using the web editor on GitHub, you can create a co-authored commit by adding a Co-authored-by: trailer to the commit's message.

  1. Collect the name and email address for each co-author. If a person chooses to keep their email address private, you should use their GitHub-provided no-reply email to protect their privacy.
  2. Click Commit changes...
  3. In the "Commit message" field, type a short, meaningful commit message that describes the changes you made.
  4. In the text box below your commit message, add Co-authored-by: name <name@example.com> with specific information for each co-author. If you're adding multiple co-authors, give each co-author their own line and Co-authored-by: commit trailer.
  5. Click Commit changes or Propose changes.

The new commit and message will appear on GitHub.com.

Further reading