Hey Nathan, that was just copy-paste from Matplotlib's Contributing Guide, I am not the author, but I fully agree with these statements :D
https://matplotlib.org/devdocs/devel/contribute.html#restrictions-on-generative-ai-usage We can extend Contributing Guide with something like this into new 1.18 point and bullet point like 1.18.1, .. , plus our own ideas as come out from this discussion, or create new dedicated document AGENTS.md, for instance: 1.18. AI and Agents. 1.18.1. We expect authentic engagement in our community. NuttX comes from years of hard work, passion, and personal dedication of individuals from around the world. We welcome and respect people with similar mindset. But we do not tolerate shortcuts and we have clearly defined enemies (see The Inviolable Principles of NuttX). 1.18.2. AI tools may do some of the work parts for you but it will not think for you. Treat them as your helpers but only in tasks which you already have experience so you can understand, verify, and explain the results details to anyone else on your own. We use tools to save our precious time. Without prior experience and perfect understanding the outcome is quite opposite - everyone's time is wasted - and we want to avoid that. 1.18.3. Using AI tools for your internal work like brainstorming, prototyping, finding information and examples, text correction, verification against contributing guidelines and code formatting, is fine, but the final submission shared with the project must be result of your own work and intellect. This effort makes us grow, develop individual skills, and provides experience necessary for top quality results. 1.18.4. Using AI tools to generate a code, git commits, pull requests, or any communication channel messages, even with minor edits to pretend it's your own work, is unacceptable. This contradicts the Apache Software Foundation contribution rules [citation_needed]. This also imposes serious copyright and licensing infringement risks because very often AI generated content is copyrighted by the AI owner even if you created the result. If this is your first or following contribution you will be banned. 1.18.5. We reserve right to ban/block/remove user accounts that are considered malicious/spam/bot/ai activity that break any of the presented rules. 1.18.6. The only exception here is for our own internal and approved testing or automation tools that may, but usually do not, have some sort of reporting autonomy, that we have created ourselves in accordance with presented rules. Let me know folks what you think, edits are welcome :-) Tomek -- CeDeROM, SQ7MHZ, http://www.tomek.cedro.info On Sat, Feb 21, 2026 at 5:30 PM Nathan Hartman <[email protected]> wrote: > > +1, yes, this is a good start, with Tomek's suggested text. It needs a > little bit more, though: > > AI has been shown to regurgitate someone's code verbatim. Now, if it > regurgitates Apache-2.0 licensed code, that might be OK, but what if it > regurgitates code with other licenses such as GPL, or some proprietary > "code available" license? The ASF's rules require that contributors' > submissions be their own. I think we need to emphasize that. > > Tomek suggests writing that the contributor should understand and be able > to explain the change. Matplotlib says the contributor should add value > with their own competency. We should perhaps emphasize that contributors > can use AI to aid their work but that their submission must be > *substantially* theirs. > > In other words: > > * using AI for brainstorming, prototyping, finding information/examples, as > a typing assistant--anything where the submission is the result of the > person's own intellect--is OK. > > * using AI to generate a PR and then making some minor edit to pretend it's > your own, is NOT ok. > > P.S., this message was written entirely by me, WITHOUT any AI. Yeah, I'm > old school like that. :-) > > Cheers, > Nathan > > On Sat, Feb 21, 2026 at 7:47 AM Alin Jerpelea <[email protected]> wrote: > > > +1 > > > > a good start > > > > Brst regards > > Alin > > > > On Sat, 21 Feb 2026, 08:24 Tomek CEDRO, <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > +1 :-) > > > > > > Looks like we have a good reference point, and we may include this > > > part to NuttX Contributing Guide? > > > > > > """ > > > Restrictions on Generative AI Usage > > > > > > We expect authentic engagement in our community. > > > > > > Do not post output from Large Language Models or similar generative AI > > > as comments on GitHub or our discourse server, as such comments tend > > > to be formulaic and low content. > > > > > > If you use generative AI tools as an aid in developing code or > > > documentation changes, ensure that you fully understand the proposed > > > changes and can explain why they are the correct approach. > > > > > > Make sure you have added value based on your personal competency to > > > your contributions. Just taking some input, feeding it to an AI and > > > posting the result is not of value to the project. To preserve > > > precious core developer capacity, we reserve the right to rigorously > > > reject seemingly AI generated low-value contributions. > > > > > > In particular, it is also strictly forbidden to post AI generated > > > content to issues or PRs via automated tooling such as bots or agents. > > > We may ban such users and/or report them to GitHub. > > > """ > > > > > > What I also really really like in that Matplotlib's Contributing Guide > > > is the "difficulty" Issues label! We may mark tasks/todos as the > > > github issues, as we do currently, but assign "difficulty" label for > > > them, so we could redirect newcomers to solve "easy" issues in the > > > first place to see how they work. This should eliminate completely new > > > people taking complex tasks without understating the basics and > > > potentially breaking stuff as we see recently. This would also > > > eliminate new people showing up with invented long term tasks just to > > > get GSoC but knowing noting about NuttX and having no prior > > > experience, etc. This would help onboard new people, get them familiar > > > with the project internals, contributing process, and we could have > > > tasks solved step by step :-) > > > > > > -- > > > CeDeROM, SQ7MHZ, http://www.tomek.cedro.info > > > > > > On Sat, Feb 21, 2026 at 5:03 AM Matteo Golin <[email protected]> > > > wrote: > > > > > > > > Separate from the other thread: > > > > https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg14332.html > > > > And starting fresh from the previous discussion: > > > > https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg14173.html > > > > > > > > I would like to propose the adoption of Matplotlib's AI policy [1] on > > > > NuttX. I believe it is a pretty reasonable middle-ground where: > > > > - Completely AI-generated PRs (code/descriptions) and comments via > > > > automated tooling, or in other words, slop, is not allowed on any > > > > repository/official communication channel of the project > > > > - Use of generative AI to aid coding, documentation writing, etc. is > > > > allowed but comes with the caveat that the contributor must understand > > > > their change and should have added some value with their personal > > > competency > > > > - Reserves the right to reject low-effort, AI-generated contributions > > > > > > > > [1]: > > > > > > > > > https://matplotlib.org/devdocs/devel/contribute.html#restrictions-on-generative-ai-usage > > > > > > > > Let me know what you think, > > > > Matteo > > > > >
