There are several reasons you might need to change the author on past commits: you switched email addresses, your Git config had the wrong name, or you committed from a shared machine that wasn't configured with your details. Whatever the reason, Git gives you a few ways to fix it.

**A word of caution:** all of these methods rewrite commit history. If you've already pushed the affected commits to a shared branch, you'll need to coordinate with your team before force pushing. Rewriting public history can cause problems for anyone who has based work on the original commits.

## Using interactive rebase

This is the approach that gives you the most control. It works well when you need to change the author on a specific range of commits.

First, make sure your local Git config has the correct author details:

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

Then start an interactive rebase from the commit *before* the first one you want to change. For example, if you want to rewrite everything after commit `956951bf`:

```bash
git rebase -i 956951bf -x "git commit --amend --reset-author -CHEAD"
```

Your editor will open with a list of commits. Each `pick` line is followed by an `exec` line that resets the author:

```bash
pick bef03ed Revert "Add the correct link to Brie"
exec git commit --amend --reset-author -CHEAD
pick 74dd8b3 New folder
exec git commit --amend --reset-author -CHEAD
pick 56aedbe remove old folder
exec git commit --amend --reset-author -CHEAD
```

Review the list to confirm these are the commits you want to change. Save and close the editor (in nano, press `ctrl+x` then `y` then `Enter`). Git will replay each commit with your current author details.

## Using `git filter-repo` for bulk changes

If you need to change the author across your entire repository history --- say, hundreds of commits --- [`git filter-repo`](https://github.com/newren/git-filter-repo) is faster and more reliable than interactive rebase:

```bash
git filter-repo --commit-callback '
  if commit.author_email == b"old@example.com":
    commit.author_name = b"Your Name"
    commit.author_email = b"new@example.com"
    commit.committer_name = b"Your Name"
    commit.committer_email = b"new@example.com"
'
```

This selectively updates only commits that match the old email, leaving everything else untouched. Install it with `brew install git-filter-repo` on macOS or `pip3 install git-filter-repo` on any platform.

## Verifying the changes

After rewriting, confirm the author details look correct:

```bash
git log --format='%h %an <%ae>' -10
```

You should see your updated name and email on the affected commits. If everything looks right, force push to update the remote:

```bash
git push origin --force-with-lease
```

Using `--force-with-lease` instead of `--force` is safer --- it will refuse to push if someone else has pushed new commits since your last fetch.

## Related

- [`git config` command reference](/git/commands/git-config) --- setting user name and email
- [`git rebase` command reference](/git/commands/git-rebase) --- interactive rebase basics
- [`git push` command reference](/git/publishing-local-changes) --- force pushing after history rewrites

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