Spot the problem

Sometimes git decides to play identity hide and seek and labels your commits with author unknown. This is a common git error when user name or email are not set in git config. The fix is small and your commit history will stop blaming you for being anonymous.

Check what git thinks about you

Run these commands in your CLI to inspect global and local identity values

git config --global user.name
git config --global user.email
git config user.name
git config user.email

If any value is empty or missing that explains the author unknown entries in your git commit logs.

Set a global identity for daily work

Most developers should set a global name and email once and move on with life

git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "you@example.com"

Use an email that matches your GitHub or hosting account to link commits to your profile and avoid mysterious avatars.

Override identity for a single repository

If a project needs a different identity set local values inside that repo

cd path/to/repo
git config user.name "Repo Name"
git config user.email "repo@example.com"

Fix a commit that already lost its author

If a commit already shows unknown author you can correct the latest commit. Warning rewriting history can confuse collaborators so be cautious on shared branches.

git commit --amend --author="Your Name " --no-edit

To change older commits use interactive rebase or a history rewrite tool such as git rebase -i or git filter-repo depending on repo size and your comfort level.

Push corrected history without breaking things

After you rewrite commits you must push with force but do it politely

git push --force-with-lease

This helps avoid trampling other peoples work. Communicate with your team before rewriting shared branches and prefer feature branches for experiments.

Quick checklist for developers

• Check global and local git config values
• Set global user.name and user.email for everyday work
• Override identity per repository when needed
• Amend bad commits and use safe force push when required
• Match your commit email to your hosting profile for proper attribution

If you want to avoid this mess forever set global values and move on. If you already rewrote history accept the tiny guilt trip and then enjoy commits that actually show your name. If anything goes wrong blame git not the timeline and ask a teammate for help.