stacklok / stacklok/mecatl

feat(prompt): add configurable Mecatl commit co-author guidance

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@jbeda is already working on this.

Since Sep 15, 2026.

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Go
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14h 48m
Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

Problem

The harness currently does not give its agents a canonical commit co-author identity. As a result, PR #1591 was committed with Co-authored-by: OpenAI Codex <codex@openai.com> even though Mecatl, not Codex, performed the work.

Desired behavior

By default, the standard model-visible commit guidance instructs every agent that creates a commit to append exactly:

Co-authored-by: Mecatl <noreply@mecatl.dev>

The instruction must reach every applicable agent path through the shared standard/system-prompt assembly, rather than relying on a caller or a skill to remember it.

Configuration

Introduce an operator-tier settings.yaml system-prompt configuration section with an explicit opt-out for this guidance. Proposed shape:

system_prompt:
  commit_coauthor: false

Default is enabled when the key is absent. Project-tier configuration must not be able to disable provenance guidance.

Acceptance criteria

  • The default built standard prompt contains the exact Mecatl co-author instruction.
  • With the operator opt-out, that instruction is absent.
  • Main and child/delegated agents receive the same default guidance through the real composition path.
  • The new config parses strictly, appears in generated configuration reference/skeleton output, and documents its operator-only/default-on semantics.
  • Prompt-level tests assert the instruction at the layer that owns it, so a duplicate phrase elsewhere cannot mask a missing wiring path.

Non-goals

  • Do not rewrite existing Git history or alter externally authored commit trailers.
  • Do not add a second, ad hoc commit-message construction path.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Assessment

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