Preserve third-party copyright attribution when re-stamping headers - #39
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The copyright tool regenerated the whole header from the IntelliJ profile, which names a single holder (TeamDev). On files derived from an Apache-2.0 upstream (e.g. Flogger) whose header credits the upstream ahead of TeamDev — `Copyright 2023, The Flogger Authors; 2025, TeamDev. All rights reserved.` — this dropped the upstream notice on every re-stamp, violating Apache-2.0 §4(c), which requires retaining such attribution. `update_copyright.py` now preserves any holder listed ahead of the profile's own (segments separated by `;`) and refreshes only the trailing profile-holder year. The logic anchors on the profile's own first line, so it is not tied to any specific project; single-holder headers are stamped exactly as before. Add regression tests (attribution retained, idempotent, multiple holders) and document the behavior in `SKILL.md`. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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Pull request overview
This PR fixes a licensing-compliance bug in the update-copyright tool by preserving third-party (upstream) attribution in existing copyright headers while still updating the local/profile holder’s year.
Changes:
- Preserve any pre-existing upstream attribution segments (separated by
;) when re-stamping a header, updating only the trailing profile-holder year. - Extend unit coverage with regression tests for single upstream attribution, idempotency, and multi-holder chains.
- Document the third-party attribution behavior in the skill’s README (
SKILL.md).
Reviewed changes
Copilot reviewed 3 out of 3 changed files in this pull request and generated no comments.
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| skills/update-copyright/scripts/update_copyright.py | Captures the original header and preserves foreign attribution while refreshing only the profile-holder year during restamping. |
| skills/update-copyright/tests/test_update_copyright.py | Adds regression tests ensuring upstream attribution is retained, updates are idempotent, and multiple holders are supported. |
| skills/update-copyright/SKILL.md | Documents the new third-party attribution preservation behavior and rationale. |
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armiol
approved these changes
Jul 24, 2026
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Problem
The
update-copyrighttool regenerates a file's whole copyright header from theIntelliJ profile, which names a single holder (TeamDev). Files derived from an
Apache-2.0 upstream — Spine Logging is derived from Google's Flogger — carry
a dual-attribution first line:
On every re-stamp (e.g. the copyright PostToolUse hook firing after any edit),
the tool collapsed this to
Copyright <year>, TeamDev. All rights reserved.,dropping the upstream credit. Apache-2.0 §4(c) requires retaining such
attribution notices, so this was a licensing-compliance bug affecting ~100
Flogger-derived files in the
loggingrepo.Fix
preserve_foreign_attribution()keeps any holder listed ahead of the profile'sown (segments separated by
;) verbatim and refreshes only the trailingprofile-holder year:
The logic anchors on the profile's own first line (
head/tailaround the yeartoken), so nothing is hard-coded to "Flogger" or "TeamDev" — it generalizes to
any upstream, including multi-holder chains (e.g.
Google Inc.; … Flogger Authors; … TeamDev). Single-holder headers hit an early return and are stampedexactly as before, so existing behavior is unchanged.
Tests
python3 -m unittest tests.test_update_copyright— 13/13 pass (10 existing +3 new: attribution retained, idempotent, multiple holders). Also verified
end-to-end through the real PostToolUse hook on a Flogger-header file: the header
was preserved and only TeamDev's year bumped.
🤖 Generated with Claude Code