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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 Enterprise Server and can be included in the profile contributions graph and the repository's statistics.

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 your GitHub Enterprise Server instance.

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.

  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 your GitHub Enterprise Server instance the next time you push. For more information, see Pushing commits to a remote repository.

Creating co-authored commits on GitHub Enterprise Server

After you've made changes in a file using the web editor on GitHub Enterprise Server, 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.
  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 your GitHub Enterprise Server instance.

Further reading