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