RAI Lint enforces Responsible AI (RAI) attribution in every commit. No more "who wrote this?" moments. No more mystery code. Just honest, trackable AI contributions.

Read the full story: Did AI Erase Attribution? Your Git History Is Missing a Co-Author

%%{init: {'theme':'dark'}}%%
flowchart LR
    A[Developer Commits] --> B{Has AI Footer?}
    B -->|Yes| C[Commit Accepted ✅]
    B -->|No| D[Commit Rejected ❌]
    C --> E[Clear AI Attribution]
    D --> F[Add Footer & Retry]

Because transparency matters. When AI writes code, everyone should know. This isn't about fear or compliance theater—it's about building trust and maintaining clear audit trails.

Every commit must include:

1. One AI attribution footer (pick the one that fits)
2. Signed-off-by footer (your human accountability stamp — git commit -s)

💡 Complete audit trail: AI attribution plus human accountability. gitlint-rai enforces both out of the box; for commitlint, enable the plugin's rai-signed-off-by rule alongside rai-footer-exists.

Pick one of these based on AI involvement:

Human accountability. This is YOUR stamp confirming you reviewed and take responsibility for the AI attribution above.

Format: Signed-off-by: Your Name <your.email@example.com>

Automate it: git commit -s (or --signoff)

npm install --save-dev commitlint-plugin-rai

Configure in commitlint.config.js:

export default {
  extends: ['@commitlint/config-conventional'],
  plugins: ['commitlint-plugin-rai'],
  rules: {
    'rai-footer-exists': [2, 'always'],
    'rai-signed-off-by': [2, 'always'],
  },
};

uv add gitlint-rai

Run the bundled gitlint-rai CLI (recommended) — it loads the RAI rules automatically and accepts all gitlint arguments:

gitlint-rai --msg-filename .git/COMMIT_EDITMSG

Or point plain gitlint at the installed package in .gitlint:

[general]
extra-path=/path/to/site-packages/gitlint_rai

Get that path with:

python -c "import gitlint_rai, pathlib; print(pathlib.Path(gitlint_rai.__file__).parent)"

commit-msg:
  commands:
    commitlint:
      run: npx --no-install commitlint --edit {1}

npx husky add .husky/commit-msg 'npx --no-install commitlint --edit $1'

repos:
  - repo: local
    hooks:
      - id: gitlint
        name: gitlint
        entry: gitlint-rai
        args: [--msg-filename]
        language: python
        additional_dependencies: ['gitlint-rai']
        stages: [commit-msg]

Once footers are landing, rai-commit-badge reads them back out of your history and publishes a shields.io badge. Mark the spot, and the action fills it in:

<!--START_SECTION:rai-badge-->
<!--END_SECTION:rai-badge-->

It weights each commit by lines changed and scores the five footers on an ordinal scale, so a typo fix doesn't outvote a generated module.

The split is deliberate: rai-lint gates, rai-commit-badge measures. Neither does the other's job.

rai-lint/
├── packages/
│   ├── node-commitlint/          # Node.js/ESM plugin
│   │   ├── src/
│   │   │   ├── rules/
│   │   │   │   ├── rai-footer-exists.ts
│   │   │   │   └── rai-signed-off-by.ts
│   │   │   └── index.ts
│   │   |── package.json
│   │   ├── tests/
│   │
│   └── python-gitlint/            # Python plugin
│       ├── gitlint_rai/
│       │   ├── __init__.py
│       │   └── rules.py
│       ├── tests/
│       └── pyproject.toml
│
├── docs/                          # Documentation

Contributions welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

This runs on the PolyForm Shield License 1.0.0 — not open source, but permissive for everyday use.

In plain English: use it, modify it, ship it in your product or CI pipeline, enforce commit messages on your team. The one thing Shield forbids is competing — reselling, rebranding, or hosting this as a paid or free substitute for the tool itself. Planning that? Email me first: anchildress1@gmail.com.

Redistributing? Keep the license (or its URL) and any Required Notice: lines intact. That's the whole ask.

If you find this project useful or want to support its development, consider starring the repo or connecting with me!