Tell HN: VS Code v1.117.0 automatically adds GitHub Copilot as your co author

aadithyassekhar about 5 hours ago 17 comments

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I don’t even use copilot. Yet, if you are like me and sometimes use the Source Control tab to stage files or manually write commit messages, it automatically appends Copilot as the co author for that commit.

How does anyone at Microsoft/Github thinks this is ok? I don’t even use your AI, this is code I have written myself. This just looks desperate.

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Discussion (17 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

adithyassekhar•about 1 hour ago

UPDATE: It was the inline suggestions. If you use it to fill at least a character or word it will decide that it owns your code now.

I accepted a typo fix in a changelog while correcting it. Appears as tab to autocomplete for those unaware. Still seems like a reach.

bcye•about 2 hours ago

This only happens on commits where autocomplete (via Copilot) was used, which I think is on by default.

Still that doesn't seem very reasonable, LLM autocomplete seems like a basic editor feature nowadays.

adithyassekhar•about 2 hours ago

Maybe you are right. I could have sworn this happened without me using autocomplete.

bcye•about 2 hours ago

i tested it right now, if autocomplete is turned off or not used the line doesn't get added. generating a commit msg also doesn't trigger it for some reason.

adithyassekhar•about 1 hour ago

Found the culprit it was the inline suggestions. If you use it to add a single comma to the code it will decide it has part ownership of your commit now.

mizhibuilder•about 5 hours ago

The problem isn’t “AI in the workflow.” It’s AI claiming authorship by default.

If I didn’t explicitly use Copilot for that commit, adding it as co-author is not assistance, it’s misattribution.

adithyassekhar•about 2 hours ago

The thing is it doesn’t even say anywhere this is being done, I only realised it after a PR was raised.

mytydev•28 minutes ago

It's in yesterday's release notes

jb_briant•about 2 hours ago

I have a rule for Claude to stop watermarking the commits. I feel exposed when it's doing it and I rewrote the entire Claude assisted commit history after switching from Copilot to Claude.

k4rli•about 2 hours ago

That's a great feature though. Vibecoded projects should be easily distinguishable, not only by common patterns preferred by "AI".

deaux•about 1 hour ago

Better start including YoE on commits as well, projects by freshers should be easily distinguishable.

altbdoor•about 1 hour ago

Friendly reminder that all (I sure hope it does all...) the Copilot kerfuffle can be disabled in `chat.disableAIFeatures` flag in the settings.

Grollicus•about 2 hours ago

How does this look like?

bcye•about 2 hours ago

Adds this line to the commit:

Co-authored-by: Copilot <copilot@github.com>

adithyassekhar•about 2 hours ago

In your git commits as “Committed by USERNAME and Copilot”.

bahadiraydin•about 4 hours ago

Good times for being a Vim guy...

sourcegrift•about 3 hours ago

Hey. What's the least plusing workflow for neovim + rust-analyzer + rust