The assistant adds files unlocked, even when git-annex is otherwise configured to add them locked.
There are good reasons for that different behavior to be the default, but it would be worth having a config to override that.
See here for some motivating use cases https://git-annex.branchable.com/forum/Is_there_a_way_to_have_assistant_add_files_locked__63__/
done, git config annex.assistant.allowunlocked to true, and then configure annex.addunlocked as desired. --Joey
This looks like it would be a relatively simple feature to add, eg an hour or two, and I see in the forum that @yarik thinks ReproNim can use it. So I'll go ahead...