- Microsoft hit backlash after ‘Co-authored-by: Copilot’ started appearing widely in VS Code
- The company has reversed this decision effective version 1.119
- Developers are still unhappy that the ‘bug’ made it to production
Microsoft has reversed a controversial change in VS Code that automatically partially attributes Github commits to Copilot — even when the AI tool wasn’t used.
Developers had previously taken to forums including Reddit to complain that ‘Co-authored-by: Copilot’ was being added to their commits even when they hadn’t used the assistant and had even turned off Copilot chat features.
It’s still unclear if this previous behavior was intentional, but it seems Microsoft has admitted the bug and fixed the issue in a new update.
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This explains the ‘Co-authored-by: Copilot’ issue in GitHub
A March 2026 change within VS Code allegedly added the Copilot author tag regardless of Copilot usage, according to reports, although a VS Code reviewer has since apologized: “There was no ill intent [an] evil corporation, but rather a desire to support functionality that some customers expect from VS Code [with regard to] AI generated code.”
After a recent change applied to version 1.119, AI attribution will only be added if users explicitly choose it.
“Of course it shouldn’t be on when disableAIFeatures is turned on, and it shouldn’t report changes that weren’t done by AI,” wrote Dmitriy Vasyura. “I will work on fixing them and in the meantime turn default to off in 1.119 update.”
The company has also scaled back intrusive Copilot integrations after broader backlash from developers, with coders less likely to trust a tool that automatically changes metadata without their express consent.
Despite the Microsoft employee confirming that the changes to the Copilot author label have been reversed, users still expressed disbelief at the company for allowing the feature to reach production in the first place. Many criticized the company for referring to such changes as bugs, noting that they were intentional all along.
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