VS Code is adding Copilot to your commits without asking.
A pull request surfaced this week revealing that VS Code automatically inserts a "Co-Authored-by Copilot" line into Git commit messages, regardless of whether the user has Copilot enabled, installed, or even subscribed. The behavior appears to have shipped in a recent update and affects the default commit workflow in the editor. Developers started noticing the unexpected attribution appearing in their commit histories and on GitHub profiles.
This is a consent problem hiding in a workflow tool. Millions of developers use VS Code. Not all of them use Copilot. Some explicitly avoid it due to licensing concerns, workplace policies, or personal preference. Yet the editor is now claiming AI co-authorship on their work without asking.
The "co-author" tag isn't cosmetic — GitHub displays it prominently on commits, and it can matter for attribution, licensing, and intellectual property tracking. For developers in certain industries or countries, having an AI attributed to their code without explicit opt-in could create legal or compliance headaches. The fact that this shipped without a clear toggle, notification, or documentation makes it worse.
GitHub hasn't explained why this behavior was added or whether a fix is coming. For now, developers are left digging through settings or reverting to command-line Git if they want clean commits.