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Commit Messages

When to Use

When committing AI-assisted code, either to a drupal.org issue fork or to your own contrib/custom project, and you want to properly attribute AI involvement.

Decision: Attribution by Context

Context Format Who Writes It
Drupal.org core contribution Issue #NNNNNNN by username: Description Maintainer (you don't control this)
Drupal.org contrib contribution Issue #NNNNNNN by username: Description Maintainer
Your own contrib module Your convention + AI trailers You
Custom project / team Team convention + AI trailers You

Pattern: AI Attribution Trailers

For repos you control, add trailers to commit messages:

Co-Authored-By (most common, GitHub renders in UI): 

Fix entity query performance for large datasets

Optimized the entity query to use proper conditions
instead of loading all entities and filtering.

Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>

Co-developed-by (Linux kernel style): 

Fix entity query performance for large datasets

Co-developed-by: Claude Sonnet 4 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Signed-off-by: Your Name <you@example.com>

Generated-by (Apache style, for primarily AI-generated code): 

Add REST resource for widget export

Generated-by: Claude Sonnet 4
Reviewed-by: Your Name <you@example.com>

Pattern: Drupal.org Convention

On drupal.org, you don't write the final commit message. The maintainer writes it when committing. Your AI disclosure lives in: 1. The issue checkboxes 2. The MR description 3. Issue comments explaining your approach

The maintainer may or may not mention AI in the commit message — that's their decision.

Common Mistakes

  • Adding AI trailers to drupal.org issue fork commits — These get squashed when the maintainer commits. Put AI disclosure in the issue and MR description instead.
  • Not attributing at all in your own repos — If you maintain a contrib module and use AI, consider adding trailers for transparency
  • Using the wrong email for the AI tool — Use noreply@anthropic.com for Claude, noreply@github.com for Copilot, or similar — don't use a real person's email
  • Overcomplicating attribution — One trailer per AI tool is sufficient. Don't list every prompt.

See Also