Authorship

sanAtana’s basic material

Hari-bhakti-vilāsa (aka vaiṣṇava-smṛti) was edited by gopAla-bhaTTa, based on a compilation by sanAtana-gosvAmI (chaitanya supposedly ordered him to do it initially as per chaitanya charitAmRta; jIva also mentions his contribution).

Citations like the below -

शिवे च परमेशाने
विष्णौ च परमात्मनि । समबुद्ध्या प्रवर्त्तन्ते
ते वै भागवतोत्तमाः ॥३०॥

can be deduced to originate from him.

Broo analysis

Mans Broo presents good textual aguments as to why this (along with the commentary) had to be sanAtana’s work. TW.

the same person wrote the main text and the commentary, and since it is clear that the commentary was written by Sanātana Gosvāmin, that means that he is the author of the main text of the HBV as well. ….

Whatever the reason, just as Sanātana’s authorship of the Bṛhadbhāgavatāmṛta was an open secret, so was that of the HBV. This open secret seems to have been less well-known by later Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas, however, where authors with a close connection to the Vṛndāvana community, such as Kṛṣṇadeva Sārvabhauma in Jaipur, were aware of it, while Bengali authors such as Manohara Dāsa struggled to understand who had written the text. - Broo

Sample acknowledgements

charitAmRta

Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī, writing just a few decades after the Gosvāmīs’ time, explicitly states that Mahāprabhu commanded Sanātana to write a vaiṣṇava-smṛti. He then confirms Sanātana fulfilled this command:

vaiṣṇava-smṛti-grantha karaha pracāra… jagad-guru tumi, jagat karibā nistāra
(Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s instruction to Sanātana: “Compile a book of Vaishnava regulations… You are the guru of the world and will deliver it.”)

sei smṛti-grantha haila ‘hari-bhakti-vilāsa’
(The result of that instruction was the smṛti book named Hari-bhakti-vilāsa.) - Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 24.343-345

jIva

In his own commentary on the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (1.2.6), Jīva Gosvāmī mentions that his uncle, Sanātana, was engaged in compiling a Vaishnava smṛti for the benefit of all devotees.

Polishing role?

The text is said to have been compiled by sanAtana-gosvAmI (on chaitanya’s command as per his charitAmRta), and just polished and edited by gopAlabhaTTa (a shrIrangam shrIvaiShNava chaitanya-follower, who ultimately took tridaNDI sannyAsa).

He starts hari-bhakti-vilAsa, which he edited.

चैतन्य-देवं भगवन्तम् आश्रये
श्री-वैष्णवानां प्रमुदेऽञ्जसा लिखन् ।
…

जीयासुर् आत्यन्तिक-भक्ति-निष्ठाः
श्री-वैष्णवा माथुर-मण्डलेऽत्र ।

Even this role is doubtful, though.

sat-kriyA-sAra-dIpikA likely his own by contrast.

Misattribution motivation

He was building an unorthodox religious movement, but wanted to insert some heft from a progressively unwilling orthodox bhakta).