Default git.addAICoAuthor to off

[Typed SIGTERM (typed-sigterm)]

The unauthorized addition of product advertisements without notifying users has drawn widespread criticism:

• https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/194075
• https://byteiota.com/vs-code-copilot-co-author-default-copyright-chaos-ensues/
• https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47966278

I personally don't care much about this, but you can't assume that everyone accepts it.

[vs-code-engineering]

📬 CODENOTIFY

The following users are being notified based on files changed in this PR:

Ladislau Szomoru (@lszomoru)

Matched files:

• extensions/git/package.json
• extensions/git/src/repository.ts

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Updates the built-in Git extension’s configuration to disable automatic AI co-author trailer insertion by default, addressing concerns about adding “Co-authored-by” trailers without explicit user opt-in.

Changes:

• Change the default value of git.addAICoAuthor from chatAndAgent to off.

[Typed SIGTERM (typed-sigterm)]

@microsoft-github-policy-service agree

[edenchazard]

+1

The original change (#310226) of off to all was honestly mind-boggling. Like, who thought that would go over well? There's been much discussion about that, so I'll avoid bringing it up again, but I feel this really should be opt-in for plenty of reasons. I'm not comfortable having my commits silently altered. There's not even anything in the UI when committing, to indicate that copilot will be added as a co-author.

The second change (#312880), after feedback, of all to chatAndAgent is... somewhat better. It feels a little more balanced, but it's still unwanted. It's not great that this was snuck in, and I've not seen any response from MS about it.

On a somewhat adjacent point: In my experience - and from what I've read from others - this "feature" doesn't always honour the setting anyway. That wants investigating.

[Typed SIGTERM (typed-sigterm)]

There're also some legal considerations: https://byteiota.com/vs-code-copilot-co-author-default-copyright-chaos-ensues/

[Luke Wren (Wren6991)]

Consider this counterargument: NUMBER 👏 GO 👏 UP 👏

[Dmitriy Vasyura (dmitrivMS)]

Thanks for this, I may have to make a new PR to check this in though since our engineering system prevents package.json changes. Will do that shortly.

[Dmitriy Vasyura (dmitrivMS)]

Here you go: #313931
It includes a little more to make sure the feature does not run when AI is disabled.
Closing this one, feel free to comment there instead.