shankar0123
921dac7e6b
Public-facing transparency artifact for the 2026-05-13 git-history rewrite. Plain-language explanation of: what changed (uniform author metadata to canonical operator identity + Co-authored-by trailers preserving AI involvement), why (LLC ownership transfer to certctl LLC + pre-traction cleanup), what is preserved (archive tag + off-platform bundle), how to recover a stale clone, and the operational note that external PRs aren't accepted until a CLA workflow is set up. The README pointer to this doc is intentionally omitted — the page is discoverable via grep against the repo (`history-normalization`), via the next CHANGELOG entry, and via any forensic observer who notices the rewrite and grep-searches for an explanation. Closes the public-transparency leg of Phase 0 (Path B2, Pattern C).
3.9 KiB
Git history normalization — 2026-05-13
Last reviewed: 2026-05-13
This page documents a one-time normalization of certctl's git history
that landed on master on 2026-05-13. If you are reading this because
your clone failed to fast-forward, or because a commit SHA you bookmarked
no longer resolves, this is the explanation.
What changed
Every commit's author and committer metadata was rewritten to a
single canonical identity (shankar0123 <skreddy040@gmail.com>). Where
the original author was an AI/automation identity (Claude, Copilot,
cowork agent, certctl-bot, etc.), a Co-authored-by: trailer was
appended to the commit message preserving the original identity. The
intent is a uniform single-author authorship layer + preserved
attribution of AI involvement.
No source-code content was changed by the rewrite. Every line of code
in every commit is byte-for-byte identical to its pre-rewrite version.
Only author / committer metadata and (for ~129 AI-touched commits)
a Co-authored-by: trailer line were touched.
Why
Two reasons:
-
LLC ownership transfer. The codebase is now legally owned by certctl LLC, which the operator incorporated to hold rights in the project. The BSL 1.1 Licensor field in
LICENSEflipped from a natural-person name tocertctl LLCin the same change set. Uniform per-commit authorship under one canonical operator identity makes the chain of title between the codebase and the LLC unambiguous. -
Pre-traction cleanup. The rewrite cost of git-history normalization scales with how many external clones and references have calcified against specific commit SHAs. Doing it now, before the project has a large external surface, minimizes disruption to downstream consumers.
What is preserved
The exact pre-rewrite history is preserved on origin at the tag
archive/pre-author-normalization-2026-05-13. If you need to
reference an original commit SHA from before the rewrite — for example
in a blog post, an external citation, or a pre-rewrite release artifact
— check that tag. The tag is immutable; we will not move or delete it.
A separate off-platform bundle backup of the pre-rewrite tree is also held by the operator (off-repo, not pushed). Both artifacts ensure the original history is recoverable forever.
Recovering after the rewrite
If you had a clone of certctl from before 2026-05-13, your local history diverged from origin's at the rewrite. Easiest recovery:
cd certctl
git fetch origin
git fetch origin --tags
git reset --hard origin/master
This force-aligns your local tree with the new origin. Any local branches you had based on pre-rewrite history will need rebasing onto the new master.
If you want to inspect the pre-rewrite state for any reason:
git fetch origin archive/pre-author-normalization-2026-05-13
git checkout archive/pre-author-normalization-2026-05-13
Container images and release tarballs
ghcr.io container images that were published before the rewrite
(ghcr.io/certctl-io/certctl-{server,agent}:<old-tag>) remain pullable
indefinitely. Their OCI source-SHA labels reference commit SHAs that
now only resolve via the archive/ tag — the images themselves still
work; only the source-SHA back-reference points at the archive. New
release images published after the rewrite reference current SHAs
normally.
If you downloaded a release tarball before the rewrite, the tarball's
contents are unchanged; only its associated git SHA differs from the
current v2.x.y tag (which has been re-pointed to the rewritten
commit at the same logical point in history).
Operational note for contributors
Future contributions to certctl should be authored under the operator's canonical git identity. Pull requests from external contributors will need a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) workflow, which the project will set up before accepting external PRs. Until then, the project does not solicit or accept external code contributions.