git commit --amend --author="Automated CI Action <no-reply@github.com>" --no-edit
this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2025
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I don't know, but I like the question. ๐
Developers don't have unions so we often just get left out of the credits anyways.
// TODO clean this up
Software very rarely has an individual's vision behind it in the same way movies do. At least publicly. There are a small handful of game developers you could say that about, but outside of games the only time a single creator's vision is relevant in that way is when they also do have creative control over it, and so the need for such a pseudonym doesn't exist.
Is there an equivalent for the software industry to indicate one wants to distance themself from a commit or a project they don't approve?
Other strategies might be better suited. For example, say you work on automobile steering software and management is cutting so much corners that things become unsafe. In that case, it might be best to write a mail to the legal department and naively ask some questions about safety and technical concerns. Then print it and take it home.
In general, if you can't ethically agree to a commit in open source software, it should be possible to withdraw that contribution.
There might be other cases where autorship or contribution to some software might expose you to discrimination. In that case, I think it is perfectly ok to work anonymously.
Never heard of this having a unique version for programming or development. These days, I suppose most "user names" are kind of like this for programmers and the necessity to not use the "same identity" in order to use most websites with a login service basically means you're SOL with coming up with a name that multiple people can adopt.
The closest we have is the hacker-worlds "Anonymous" or similar hacking groups where it's always unclear if it's one person or multiple in actuality.
The closest thing I can think of is @author unascribed sometimes seen in Javadoc comments, but I don't think that's used in quite the same way as what you're asking.