Creating a commit with multiple authors

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 GitHub account.

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."

Creating co-authored commits using GitHub Desktop

You can use GitHub Desktop to create a commit with a co-author. For more information, see "Write a commit message and push your changes" 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 <[email protected]> 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.

   $ git commit -m "Refactor usability tests.
   >
   >
   Co-authored-by: name <[email protected]>
   Co-authored-by: another-name <[email protected]>"

The new commit and message will appear on GitHub the next time you push. For more information, see "Pushing changes 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. After making your changes together, at the bottom of the page, type a short, meaningful commit message that describes the changes you made.

3. In the text box below your commit message, add Co-authored-by: name <[email protected]> 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.

   

4. Click Commit changes or Propose changes.

The new commit and message will appear on GitHub.

Further reading

• "Viewing a summary of repository activity"
• "Viewing a project's contributors"
• "Changing a commit message"
• "Committing and reviewing changes to your project" in the GitHub Desktop documentation