Cleanup Author References Skill

Overview

This skill removes AI authorship references from git repositories, cleaning up:

"🤖 Generated with Claude Code" lines
"Co-Authored-By: Claude..." lines (case-insensitive)
"Co-authored-by: Claude..." lines
Other mentions of Claude in commit messages
Branch names containing "claude" references

Prerequisites

git-filter-repo is required - it's the modern, safe way to rewrite git history.

Install via Homebrew (macOS)

brew install git-filter-repo

Or via pip

pip install git-filter-repo

Pre-Cleanup Checklist

Before running cleanup:

Backup your repository - history rewriting is destructive
Ensure working directory is clean - no uncommitted changes
Coordinate with team - force pushes will be required
Note current remote - you'll need to re-add it after cleanup

Check status

git status

Store remote URL for later

git remote get-url origin

Create a backup branch

git branch backup-before-cleanup

Cleanup Commands

Step 1: Preview Affected Commits

First, see which commits will be modified:

Find commits mentioning claude (case-insensitive)

git log --all --oneline --grep="claude" -i

Count affected commits

git log --all --oneline --grep="claude" -i | wc -l

Find Co-Authored-By mentions

git log --all --oneline --grep="Co-Authored-By.*Claude" -i

Find Generated with Claude Code

git log --all --oneline --grep="Generated with.*Claude" -i

Step 2: Run git-filter-repo

IMPORTANT: git-filter-repo requires a fresh clone OR the --force flag. It also removes the origin remote as a safety measure.

Store remote URL before cleanup

REMOTE_URL=$(git remote get-url origin 2>/dev/null || echo "")

Run the cleanup with message callback

git-filter-repo --message-callback ' import re msg = message.decode("utf-8", errors="replace")

Patterns to remove

patterns = [ # Generated with Claude Code (with and without emoji/link) r"\n*\s🤖\sGenerated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)\s*\n*", r"\n*\s🤖\sGenerated with Claude Code\s*\n*", r"\n*\sGenerated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)\s\n*", r"\n*\sGenerated with Claude Code\s\n*", # Co-Authored-By variations r"\n*\sCo-Authored-By:\sClaude[^\n]\n", r"\n*\sCo-authored-by:\sClaude[^\n]\n", r"\n*\sco-authored-by:\sClaude[^\n]\n", # Anthropic email variations r"\n*\sCo-Authored-By:[^\n]@anthropic.com[^\n]\n", r"\n*\sCo-authored-by:[^\n]@anthropic.com[^\n]\n", ]

for pattern in patterns: msg = re.sub(pattern, "\n", msg, flags=re.IGNORECASE)

Clean up excessive newlines

msg = msg.rstrip() + "\n" msg = re.sub(r"\n{3,}", "\n\n", msg)

return msg.encode("utf-8") ' --force

Re-add the remote if it existed

if [ -n "$REMOTE_URL" ]; then git remote add origin "$REMOTE_URL" fi

Step 3: Verify Cleanup

Check for any remaining Claude references

git log --all --oneline --grep="claude" -i

Should return empty or 0

git log --all --oneline --grep="claude" -i | wc -l

Check for remaining Co-Authored-By

git log --all --grep="Co-Authored-By.*Claude" -i

Step 4: Force Push (if needed)

WARNING: This rewrites remote history. Coordinate with your team.

Force push all branches

git push origin --force --all

Force push tags

git push origin --force --tags

Branch Name Cleanup

If you have branches with "claude" in the name:

List branches containing "claude"

git branch -a | grep -i claude

Rename a local branch

git branch -m old-claude-branch new-branch-name

Delete remote branch and push renamed one

git push origin :old-claude-branch git push origin -u new-branch-name

Batch Cleanup Script

For cleaning multiple repositories at once, create this script:

#!/bin/bash

cleanup_repos.sh - Clean Claude references from multiple repos

REPOS_DIR="${1:-.}" cd "$REPOS_DIR"

for dir in */; do if [ -d "$dir/.git" ]; then echo "=== Processing $dir ===" cd "$dir"

    # Check for Claude references
    COUNT=$(git log --all --oneline --grep="claude" -i 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d ' ')

    if [ "$COUNT" -gt 0 ]; then
        echo "Found $COUNT commits with Claude references"

        # Store remote
        REMOTE=$(git remote get-url origin 2>/dev/null || echo "")

        # Run cleanup
        git-filter-repo --message-callback '

import re msg = message.decode("utf-8", errors="replace") patterns = [ r"\n*\s🤖\sGenerated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)\s*\n*", r"\n*\s🤖\sGenerated with Claude Code\s*\n*", r"\n*\sCo-Authored-By:\sClaude[^\n]\n", r"\n*\sCo-authored-by:\sClaude[^\n]\n", ] for pattern in patterns: msg = re.sub(pattern, "\n", msg, flags=re.IGNORECASE) msg = msg.rstrip() + "\n" msg = re.sub(r"\n{3,}", "\n\n", msg) return msg.encode("utf-8") ' --force

        # Restore remote
        if [ -n "$REMOTE" ]; then
            git remote add origin "$REMOTE"
        fi

        echo "Cleaned $dir"
    else
        echo "No Claude references found in $dir"
    fi

    cd ..
fi

done

Dry Run / Preview Mode

To preview what would be changed without modifying anything:

Clone to a temp directory for testing

git clone --mirror . /tmp/test-cleanup cd /tmp/test-cleanup

Run cleanup on the test clone

git-filter-repo --message-callback '...' --force

Compare before/after

git log --all --oneline | head -20

Clean up test directory

rm -rf /tmp/test-cleanup

Troubleshooting

"refusing to run on a repo that already has history"

Solution: Use --force flag or start with a fresh clone.

"git-filter-repo: command not found"

Solution: Install git-filter-repo:

brew install git-filter-repo

or

pip install git-filter-repo

Remote was removed

This is expected behavior. Re-add it:

git remote add origin <your-remote-url>

Team members have old history

After force pushing, team members need to:

git fetch origin git reset --hard origin/main # or their branch

Safety Notes

Always backup before rewriting history
Coordinate force pushes with team members
This modifies commit hashes - any external references (issues, PRs) may break
Consider using git reflog as emergency recovery within 90 days

cleanup author references

Safety Notice

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