git-author-reformer

A terminal UI tool for rewriting git commit author history.

Rename primary commit authors, fix emails, and drop Co-authored-by trailers across an entire repository in seconds. Ships as a single pre-built binary: download with one command, then run directly.

demo.mp4

Quick Start

Run directly without installing:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/uinstinct/git-author-reformer/main/install.sh | sh

The script detects your platform, downloads the matching binary, verifies its SHA256 checksum, and saves it as ./git-author-reformer in the current directory. Re-running the script reuses the existing binary — no re-download needed. Then run it directly:

./git-author-reformer

What It Does

• Rename authors — change name and/or email on commits attributed to a given identity
• Bulk rewrite — rewrites every commit reachable from every branch and tag
• Drop co-authors — remove specific Co-authored-by trailer lines from commit messages

Usage

Run the tool from inside a git repository:

cd /path/to/your/repo
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/uinstinct/git-author-reformer/main/install.sh | sh
./git-author-reformer

Use the keyboard to:

Key	Action
↑ / ↓	Navigate the author list
Enter	Select an author to rename
Tab	Switch between fields
Ctrl+S	Confirm and rewrite history
q / Esc	Quit without changes

Note: Run this on a local clone. Rewriting history changes commit SHAs — you will need to force-push if the repository has a remote.

Platform Support

Pre-built binaries are available for:

Platform	Binary
Linux x86_64	git-author-reformer-linux-x86_64 (static musl)
Linux aarch64	git-author-reformer-linux-aarch64 (static musl)
macOS Apple Silicon	git-author-reformer-macos-aarch64
macOS Intel	git-author-reformer-macos-x86_64

The Linux binary is fully static (musl) — no glibc dependency, runs on any Linux kernel ≥ 3.2.

Building from Source

Requires Rust 1.74+.

git clone https://github.com/uinstinct/git-author-reformer.git
cd git-author-reformer
cargo build --release
./target/release/git-author-reformer

For the fully static Linux binary:

rustup target add x86_64-unknown-linux-musl
CARGO_NET_GIT_FETCH_WITH_CLI=true cargo build --release --target x86_64-unknown-linux-musl

License

MIT