From 6def7c4d63f499aba10fe93c7bb2c7e206a7d7f5 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Craig Jennings Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2026 14:02:39 -0500 Subject: chore: drop AI co-author from generated-document headers Every org document an agent writes carried `#+AUTHOR: Craig Jennings & Claude`. No template stamps that line. Agents copy it from a neighboring file, so one stray header propagates through everything generated afterward. My own repos tolerate the co-author line. Employers whose policy is that work product carries employee names alone do not. An `#+AUTHOR:` line survives conversion into docx, a wiki page, or a PDF that reaches a customer. I rewrote the header to `Craig Jennings` across the workflows, templates, specs, and design docs. The rule now lives in commits.md, so the next generated document starts correct rather than inheriting the mistake. Archived session logs keep their original headers as a record of what happened. The two Codex-authored design docs keep their byline, because Codex wrote them and relabeling would be a false attribution rather than the removal of one. --- claude-rules/commits.md | 29 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 29 insertions(+) (limited to 'claude-rules') diff --git a/claude-rules/commits.md b/claude-rules/commits.md index 4509cee..4e23a75 100644 --- a/claude-rules/commits.md +++ b/claude-rules/commits.md @@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ Absolutely no AI/LLM/Claude/Anthropic attribution in: - Code comments - Commit trailers - Release notes, changelogs, and any public-facing artifact +- Document author metadata — an org `#+AUTHOR:` line, YAML frontmatter `author:`, a docx or PDF author property, a byline This means: @@ -32,6 +33,34 @@ If a tool, template, or default config inserts attribution, remove it. If settings.json needs it, set `attribution.commit: ""` and `attribution.pr: ""` to suppress the defaults. +### Generated documents carry the human author only + +Every document an agent writes or updates — a daily prep, a session log, a +spec, an explainer, a meeting summary — names the human as its sole author. +`#+AUTHOR: Craig Jennings`, never `Craig Jennings & Claude`, and never an +agent's name standing alone. + +The failure mode is imitation, not intent. No template stamps this line; +agents copy the author header from whatever sits nearby — yesterday's prep, +the workflow file they're reading, the doc next to the one they're writing. +So a single stray `& Claude` propagates through everything generated +afterward, and no amount of fixing individual files stops it. Fix the files +an agent reads, and state the rule here. + +The stakes are highest where the rule is least visible. A private notes repo +tolerates a co-author line; many employers do not, and their policy is that +work product carries employee names alone. An `#+AUTHOR:` line survives +conversion into docx, a published wiki page, or a PDF handed to a customer, +so a header written in a scratch document three months ago can surface inside +a deliverable. Write the header correctly at creation. + +Two things this rule does not ask for. Don't rewrite historical records — +archived session logs and past dated documents stay as they are, because +they're a record of what happened rather than a live artifact. And don't +relabel a document another agent genuinely authored: if Codex wrote it, the +byline stays Codex. The rule removes false co-authorship, not true +authorship. + ## Commit Message Format Commit messages follow the [Conventional Commits](https://www.conventionalcommits.org/) spec. -- cgit v1.2.3