source-control: PR-body "Generated with Claude Code" attribution is unconditional — no trailer_policy-equivalent seam

[kyle-sexton]

Plugin: source-control · Categories: hardcoded opinion (1), missing externalization (2)
Source: work-readiness sweep (read-only audit vs docs/PLUGIN-PHILOSOPHY.md + docs/MIGRATION-PLAYBOOK.md)

Findings

• plugins/source-control/skills/pull-request/reference/create.md:174 (template at :167-176) — 🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code) hardcoded into the PR-body heredoc appended to every skill-created PR. Grep-confirmed sole occurrence; no config key gates it.

Why it breaks agnosticism

Asymmetric with the commit trailer, which IS externalized (commit/SKILL.md:58,106 honors .claude/source-control.md trailer_policy including none; setup SKILL.md:143-145). The PR-body attribution has no such seam — a consumer wanting no Claude attribution in PR bodies (or a different one) must fork/hand-edit the plugin, violating "Configurable without editing the plugin" and the trailer-precedence rule (repo convention wins). A baked outward-artifact opinion written into every PR.

Fix direction

Gate the attribution line behind the same .claude/source-control.md seam (trailer_policy or a sibling pr_body_attribution key / userConfig), defaulting to current behavior; read the project's PR-body convention first.

[kyle-sexton]

This was generated by AI during triage.

Triage → T2 planning complete · confidence: high (advisor-reviewed). Bounded mirror of the existing trailer_policy seam — same config file, same resolution ladder, default = current behavior. Labeling status: ready. One product fork (sibling key vs extend trailer_policy) is flagged with a recommendation; the mechanism is identical either way.

Plan — gate PR-body attribution behind the .claude/source-control.md seam

The asymmetry

skills/pull-request/reference/create.md §2.4.1 hardcodes the attribution line into the quoted PR-body heredoc appended to every skill-created PR (🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)). The commit trailer is already externalized: skills/commit/SKILL.md reads trailer_policy from .claude/source-control.md (default appends the Co-Authored-By trailer; none drops it; a different value substitutes), and skills/setup/SKILL.md documents/materializes/reports it. The PR body has no equivalent — a consumer wanting no/different PR-body attribution must fork.

Behavioral contract

• PR-body attribution honors the same consumer seam as the commit trailer.
• Default unchanged: nothing configured → current Claude Code line present exactly as today.
• Repo convention wins, mirroring the PR-title / trailer ladders: .claude/source-control.md pr_body_attribution → the consuming project's own PR-body convention (CLAUDE.md/AGENTS.md/.github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md, already cited in create.md §2.4.1) → bundled default.
• Path resolution mirrors commit's repo-root discipline: resolve from ${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR}, fall back to git rev-parse --show-toplevel, never cwd-relative.

Recommended key: sibling pr_body_attribution (not extending trailer_policy)

trailer_policy's value is a git-trailer template (Co-Authored-By: <Key>: <Value>), which has no coherent mapping onto a PR-body markdown line. Reusing it would couple two independent concerns (a consumer may want the commit co-author trailer but not the PR-body line, or vice-versa). A sibling key keeps each config section single-responsibility and resolves/defaults identically.

Change 1 — skills/pull-request/reference/create.md §2.4.1

Lift the attribution line out of the inert <<'EOF' quoted heredoc and append it conditionally via parameter expansion (keeps the injection defense intact — resolved value spliced as literal text, never re-evaluated). Mirror commit's doc style (natural-language rule + comment), not a new bash idiom:

# Quoted heredoc — body template is inert; nothing inside expands.
TEMPLATE=$(cat <<'EOF'
## Summary
...

## Test plan
- ...
EOF
)

# PR-body attribution: included only when the resolved pr_body_attribution calls for one.
# Ladder (same repo-root discipline as /commit's trailer_policy — ${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR}
# then git rev-parse --show-toplevel, never cwd-relative):
#   .claude/source-control.md pr_body_attribution
#     -> the consuming project's own PR-body convention
#     -> default: the Claude Code line below.
# pr_body_attribution of `none`/`off` -> omit the line entirely.
# A different value -> substitute that markdown text.
PR_ATTRIBUTION="🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)"
[[ -n "$PR_ATTRIBUTION" ]] && TEMPLATE+=$'\n\n'"$PR_ATTRIBUTION"

Add one prose sentence in §2.4.1 stating the ladder + default, mirroring the "PR title format" ladder wording in the pull-request SKILL.md.

Change 2 — skills/setup/SKILL.md (mirror trailer_policy in all three places)

1. check reporting — add pr_body_attribution to the effective-convention report list (unset = INFO + documented default, never FAIL).
2. apply step 4 — add an optional decision after trailer_policy: whether skill-created PR bodies carry an attribution line and its exact markdown; recommend keeping the current default unless the user states otherwise; omit the section if the repo has no such convention.
3. Materialized config template — add a ## pr_body_attribution section (dropped when empty, like the others).

Blast radius

Generated with appears in exactly one source location (create.md §2.4.1). babysit-prs composes the create path and its prose already defers attribution to repo convention → this single edit covers it.

Acceptance criteria

• ## pr_body_attribution = none/off → skill-created PR body has no attribution line.
• Set to a different markdown string → that string appears instead.
• Section absent / no config file → attribution present exactly as today.
• A consuming project whose own PR-body convention omits attribution is honored even without the key (middle rung).
• Resolves from repo root, not cwd, when run from a nested directory.
• /source-control:setup check reports the effective pr_body_attribution (or documented default when unset).

Notes

• The one genuine fork: sibling key vs extending trailer_policy is a maintainer-vetoable product stance (someone might want a single master "attribution" switch). Recommended sibling key on engineering grounds (incompatible value shapes; independent opt-out). Mechanism identical either way → doesn't destabilize the plan.
• pr_body_attribution is a proposed name; maintainer may prefer another (pr_attribution, pr_body_trailer). Seam mechanics are name-independent.
• Verified against cached source 0.9.0; grep confirmed the attribution line hardcoded in exactly one place.