diff --git a/src/templatebot/services/template.py b/src/templatebot/services/template.py
index 7c82716..c3b7518 100644
--- a/src/templatebot/services/template.py
+++ b/src/templatebot/services/template.py
@@ -303,8 +303,7 @@ async def create_project_from_template(  # noqa: PLR0915 C901
             git_repo = GitClone.init_repo(
                 path=project_dir, github_client=github_client
             )
-            bot_actor = await git_repo.create_bot_actor()
-            git_repo.commit("Initial commit", actor=bot_actor)
+            git_repo.commit("Initial commit")
             git_repo.push(remote_url=github_repo_url, branch="main")
 
         # Create a Markdown code block showing the template variable names
diff --git a/src/templatebot/storage/gitclone.py b/src/templatebot/storage/gitclone.py
index bc5a635..91e10de 100644
--- a/src/templatebot/storage/gitclone.py
+++ b/src/templatebot/storage/gitclone.py
@@ -62,18 +62,17 @@ def add_remote(self, url: str, *, name: str = "origin") -> git.Remote:
         authed_url = self._create_authed_url(url)
         return self._repo.create_remote(name, authed_url)
 
-    async def create_bot_actor(self) -> git.Actor:
+    def create_bot_actor(self) -> git.Actor:
         """Create an actor for the bot."""
-        username = config.github_username
-        response = await self._github_client.getitem(
-            "/users{/user}", url_vars={"user": username}
+        email = (
+            f"{config.github_app_id}+{config.github_username}"
+            "[bot]@users.noreply.github.com"
         )
-        uid = str(response["id"])
-        email = f"{uid}+{username}@users.noreply.github.com"
-        return git.Actor(username, email)
+        return git.Actor(config.github_username, email)
 
-    def commit(self, message: str, *, actor: git.Actor) -> None:
+    def commit(self, message: str) -> None:
         """Commit all changes in the repository."""
+        actor = self.create_bot_actor()
         self._repo.index.commit(message, author=actor, committer=actor)
 
     def push(self, *, remote_url: str, branch: str = "main") -> None: