I want to remove Claude AI name from Contributor list

[chanupadulnuwan]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Question

Body

I recently rewrote the commit history across all three of my repositories to remove a co-author entry that was added by mistake. I used git filter-branch to strip the Co-Authored-By lines from every commit,
deleted all backup refs (refs/original/), expired the reflog, ran git gc --prune=now, and force-pushed all branches and tags.

The git history is now fully clean — the co-author's name and email no longer appear in any commit. However, the contributor list on GitHub still shows the removed co-author.

Affected repositories:

• https://github.com/chanupadulnuwan/NestleInsight-backend
• https://github.com/chanupadulnuwan/NestleInsight-AdminWeb
• https://github.com/chanupadulnuwan/NestleInsight-mobile

[ahona-omi]

What you can do:

1. Wait a few days for GitHub to reprocess the repository
2. Make a new commit and push to trigger reindexing
3. If it persists after a week, contact GitHub Support

If your commit history is clean (which you’ve verified), then this is just a delay on GitHub’s side, not an issue with your repo.

[Uriah08]

Hi There! This is expected behavior on GitHub and not an issue with your git history rewrite.

Even after removing the Co-Authored-By lines and force-pushing a fully rewritten history, GitHub’s contributor graph does not update immediately (and sometimes not automatically at all). This is because GitHub caches contributor data separately from the raw git history.

Why the co-author still appears:

• GitHub aggregates contributors based on past commits it has already indexed
• That data is cached and not instantly recomputed after history rewrites
• Force-pushing does not guarantee immediate recalculation of contributors

What you can do:

1. Wait for GitHub to refresh it
   Sometimes GitHub will eventually recalculate the contributor list, but this can take time and is not guaranteed.

2. Trigger a refresh
   Make a new commit and push it. In some cases, this helps GitHub reprocess contributor data.

3. Contact GitHub Support (most reliable fix)
   If the contributor still appears after rewriting history, you need to contact GitHub Support and ask them to refresh/recompute the contributor graph for your repository.

Include:

• Repository links
• Explanation that you rewrote history to remove incorrect co-author attribution
• Request to refresh contributor statistics

Important notes:

• Your git history is already correct — you’ve done everything properly
• This is a GitHub-side caching issue, not a problem with your repo
• There is no local git command that can force GitHub to update this

Summary:
The contributor is still showing because of GitHub’s cached data. The only guaranteed fix is to contact GitHub Support and request a manual refresh.

[singhrajvardhan]

GitHub doesn’t update the contributor list instantly. It uses cached data, so even after cleaning the history, the old name can still show for some time. Usually, it fixes itself within a few hours or up to a couple of days. You can try pushing a small empty commit to help trigger a refresh, but even that is not always necessary.

If you’ve already checked and the name/email is completely gone from your commits, then there’s nothing more you need to fix in your repo. Just wait a bit. If it still shows after 2–3 days, then you should contact GitHub Support and ask them to refresh the contributor data.

[sangtn13]

Hi,

This is expected behavior on GitHub.

Even after rewriting commit history, the Contributors list may still show the removed author due to cached data. GitHub periodically recalculates contributors, but it can take some time.

You can try:

• Making a new commit and pushing it to trigger a refresh
• Waiting for GitHub to re-index the repository (can take hours to days)

Also note:

• If the co-author had commits previously merged or referenced elsewhere (forks, PRs), they may still appear
• Contributor stats are not always instantly updated after history rewrites

If the issue persists after some time, you may need to contact GitHub Support for a manual refresh.

Thanks!

[RohanBabhale1]

GitHub’s contributor list doesn’t update instantly after rewriting history.

What to do:

1. Wait
   GitHub recalculates contributors in the background. It may take a few hours to a few days.

2. Make sure:

   • No commits (in any branch/tag) still contain that email
   • No forks still reference old commits

3. If it still shows after some time:

   • Open a support request on GitHub
   • Ask them to recompute contributors

Important:

Even after cleanup, GitHub may still show them temporarily due to caching.

✅ Your steps are correct — just need to wait or contact support.

[dannylty]

Rename your "main" branch to "main1" and back (after doing the history rewrite). This fixed it for me.

[LockBall]

Worked for me, thanks !

[AbhinavPabbaraju]

Hey, what you're seeing is expected behavior due to how GitHub computes and caches the Contributors list, which is not a direct reflection of your current Git history alone.

---

Why the contributor still appears

Even after rewriting history and force-pushing, GitHub’s contributor list is derived from:

1. Historical commit data (including previously indexed commits)
2. Cached aggregation results
3. Commits that may still exist in forks, PRs, or hidden refs

So even if:

• your local history is clean
• all branches/tags were force-pushed

GitHub may still show the contributor because:

their contributions were already indexed and cached

---

Important details

1. GitHub caches contributor stats

The contributors graph is:

• not updated instantly
• backed by background jobs

It can take:

• hours → days
  to fully refresh after history rewrites

---

2. Contributions from forks / PRs still count

If that co-author:

• contributed via a PR
• or exists in forks

GitHub may still associate them with the repo.

---

3. Hidden refs may still exist

Even after:

git filter-branch
git gc --prune=now

GitHub may still retain:

• internal references
• cached objects

---

What you can try

1. Wait for re-indexing (first step)

In many cases:

the contributor disappears after GitHub reprocesses the repo

---

2. Trigger activity

Make a new commit and push:

git commit --allow-empty -m "trigger reindex"
git push

This can sometimes force GitHub to refresh metadata.

---

3. Verify no commits remain

Run:

git log --all --grep="Co-authored-by"

and also check:

git shortlog -sne --all

Ensure the co-author is truly gone everywhere.

---

4. If still present → GitHub Support

At that point, it's likely:

server-side cached contributor data

You can contact:
https://support.github.com/contact

Explain:

• history was rewritten
• co-author removed
• contributor still يظهر

---

Important limitation

Even with full history rewrite:

GitHub does not guarantee complete removal from contributor stats immediately or retroactively

Because:

• stats are partially derived from indexed historical data
• and may persist beyond repo-level rewrites

---

[alberti42]

Did it work in the end? I checked your repos; it appears that you have actual commits by Claude. Perhaps you later gave up and accepted it instead of fighting against it? I am curious because this happened to me too. I did credit Claude in the source code, but I did not want the logo of the company prominent on all my GitHub projects.

For example, I use Apple computers and don't have problems sharing this information, but I don't want the Apple logo to be printed on all my projects, like "Powered by Apple" or something of this kind.

PS: I tried the trick https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/191565#discussioncomment-16526230 but it did not work.
PS2: If it is only a problem of cache, is there anybody who has direct evidence of how many days it can take to recompute stale cache?

[federweb]

just block claude ... simple
https://github.com/claude

" You have blocked this user"

[federweb]

[GerardUmbert]

This works, can confirm

[alberti42]

TL;DR I found the solution - read the last paragraph.

Thanks a lot @federweb for the tip. It did not work, though. Possibly because my project was not in my own GitHub but rather in a GitHub organization. I had banned claude from my personal GitHub and from the organization, but it did not resolve the problem.

I also tried to contact GitHub, and I received an automatic message by Copilot saying that a refresh of GitHub widgets updating author contributions cannot be triggered manually. I am saying this here to save time for people in the future if they consider writing GitHub support stuff.

The solution was about shortly transferring ownership of my project to my personal GitHub and then back again. The transfer lasted about 10 seconds, just the time to click on the buttons in the danger zone to switch ownership. This operation triggered the recalculation of authors' contributions. Now only actual authors are credited, and the problem is now fixed. Hopefully this can save time for someone else reading this post in the future.

[AlexCojescu]

GitHub caches its contributor data, so the old name might stick around for a while even after you clean up your history. Usually it corrects itself within a few hours to a couple of days. You can try pushing an empty commit to nudge things along, though honestly it's often unnecessary. If you've already verified the name and email are gone from your actual commits, you're done. The rest is just time. Give it a few days. If it's still there after 2–3 days, reach out to GitHub Support and ask them to refresh the data. That's about all you can do at that point.

[alberti42]

Yes, I did everything you described, but after a week there was no refresh. Probably if I had waited a month, it would have refreshed at some point.

How often the refresh occurs probably depends on (pure speculation):

• how many commits your repo receives
• how many external contributions
• how busy GitHub servers are

The method I described above works instantaneously, and I verified it just recently. So why not use it, especially if you have a second GitHub account that you can use to temporarily (10 seconds) juggle your repo back and forth?

[ABIGAILDEBBY]

After trying most approaches in this thread, here is what I can confirm from personal testing, plus a summary of what the community has found across multiple discussions.

Why the problem persists after git-filter-repo + force push:
GitHub's contributor list is not a live read of your git history. It is a separately cached index. More importantly, every merged PR created a refs/pull/*/head ref that GitHub controls and you cannot overwrite. If those PRs had Co-Authored-By lines, GitHub's indexer can still count them no matter how clean your current history is.

What actually worked for me

I had Claude AI and CodeRabbit showing up and wanted them gone. The fix is a branch rename, which forces GitHub to recalculate the contributor index:

gh api repos/OWNER/REPO/branches/main/rename \
  --method POST -f new_name="main-temp"

gh api repos/OWNER/REPO/branches/main-temp/rename \
  --method POST -f new_name="main"

Make the repo private first, do both renames, make it public again. Refreshed the page and they were gone.
Force-pushing and deleting/recreating the branch do not work.

[MarcoDiIanni9631]

Well done! It worked for me, super thank you

[Binary-yev]

worked

[ABIGAILDEBBY]

Glad it worked for you both.

[GerardUmbert]

blocking claude as mentioned a couple posts above works just fine.

[hasheramin5-cyber]

That's an interesting issue. If the commit history has been fully rewritten, I wonder if the contributor list is cached by GitHub and just needs time to refresh. Looking forward to an official clarification.

[RajGupta0510]

GitHub's Contributors page isn't generated solely from the current Git history. It can be cached, and it may also take into account historical commit data that GitHub has already indexed. Even after rewriting history and force-pushing, the contributor list may not update immediately.

A few things you can check:

• Verify there are no remaining commits (including on other branches or tags) that still contain the old author or co-author information.
• Ensure forks or default branch references aren't keeping the old commits alive.
• Wait a while for GitHub to reindex the repository, as this can take some time.
• If everything is clean and the contributor still appears after reindexing, it's worth contacting GitHub Support since they may need to refresh the repository's contributor data manually.

[pira73br]

Hey everyone 👋

There’s already a lot of useful detail in this thread, so I’m posting a short summary here to help others who land on the same problem.

Short version of what’s going on:

GitHub’s Contributors list is cached / indexed separately from your current git history. So even after removing Co-authored-by and force-pushing, Claude can stay visible for hours/days (or longer if old PR refs still exist).

What usually works:

1. Verify history is actually clean
   git log --all --grep="Co-authored-by"
   git shortlog -sne --all

2. Trigger a refresh
   git commit --allow-empty -m "trigger reindex"
   git push

3. Branch rename trick (often forces reindex)
   gh api repos/OWNER/REPO/branches/main/rename --method POST -f new_name="main-temp"
   gh api repos/OWNER/REPO/branches/main-temp/rename --method POST -f new_name="main"

4. Optional workaround some people report
   Block https://github.com/claude

5. If still stuck after a few days
   Contact GitHub Support and ask them to recompute contributor stats:
   https://support.github.com/contact

Important:
Merged PR refs (refs/pull/*/head) can keep old co-authors indexed even when main looks clean.

Hope this helps others too. If it does, please mark as the accepted answer.

[Enalite]

None of the solutions above helped. I don't know why, but something strange happened.

After I changed the default branch to an existing one and then switched it back to the original branch, the number of contributors dropped from 4 to 3 (so GitHub most likely removed that contributor). However, the HTML rendering of the contributors' images and names did not change.

I didn't even use this shit. I just merged a PR and... 😮‍💨

The repo

UPDATE: Oh, it's fixed now. I don't know how, but I created a new file and it got fixed. I really hate Claude for causing such a disaster, though. They've lost one of their customers...

[GerardUmbert]

That is just not true. Block Claude, it will go away.

[GerardUmbert]

Also, regarding your edit. Dropping Claude for attaching credit's to itself on commits is flat out stupid. Just tell it to remember to NEVER credit Claude or anthropic on the commits, documentation or anything else. Simple as that.

[HamiParsa]

Hi,

This is a known GitHub caching issue. Rewriting history with filter-branch removes the co-author from the commits, but GitHub's contributors graph and insights are cached and won't update automatically.

Here’s what you need to do:

Force a refresh – Go to your repository on GitHub, click on the "Insights" tab, then "Contributors", and manually refresh the page a few times. Sometimes it takes 24–48 hours to update.

Create a dummy commit – Make a trivial change (e.g., add a space in the README), commit it, and push it. This forces GitHub to recalculate the contributor list.

bash
git commit --allow-empty -m "Trigger contributor refresh" --author="Your Name "
git push
Check your local repo – Make sure the co-author email is not in your global .gitconfig or local .git/config under user.email, or as a .mailmap file.

If none of the above works, you may need to delete and re-create the repository (private → delete → re-create with the same name) and force-push your clean history again. This is the nuclear option but always works.

Let me know if you need more help!

[GerardUmbert]

Or just block Claude

[masonreed11]

GitHub's contributor list can lag after a history rewrite. If you've removed the co-author from all branches and tags, give it some time. If it still doesn't update after a few days, contact GitHub Support to have them check the contributor cache.