Re: [PATCH v4 0/4] docs/devel, AGENTS.md: a completely new policy on AI-generated contributions

["Michael S. Tsirkin" <mst@redhat.com>]

On Wed, Sep 30, 2026 at 10:54:29AM +0200, Paolo Bonzini wrote:
> Based on the previous discussions, I am finally attempting a non-RFC
> version of the new AI policy.  Discussion on v3 introduced interesting
> points on attestation and I think a consensus is forming.
> 
> Why review the policy?  The blanket ban no longer reflects reality, since
> contributors have been posting AI-generated patches or even larger series.
> This was done most likely in good faith, as these submissions predated
> the introduction of an AGENTS.md file, and it shows that AI can be used
> for useful and creative work on QEMU.
> 
> Rather than expecting maintainers to police these contributors, the new
> policy seeks to ensure that AI usage helps us produce better code rather
> than simply move faster and flood us with dubious work.  In the words
> of Warner Losh, we want to avoid "free as in puppy" contributions[1]
> that increase the load of present and future maintainers by adding
> technical debt.
> 
> This is not a free-for-all.  To avoid maintainer burnout, AI
> contributions must be grounded in respect for maintainers and in the
> existing contribution process.  Large, heavily AI-assisted contributions
> require pre-arrangement with the relevant subsystem maintainers, and
> will be held to a higher standard.
> 
> One of the reasons for the old policy was the issue of code provenance
> and the impossibility to certify the originality of code created by
> AI/LLM tools.  The new policy tries to adopt a "Swiss cheese"
> approach to mitigating the risks implicit in accepting AI-generated code
> in three ways:
> 
> 1) by requiring pre-arrangement for larger contributions, and making
> maintainers free to apply their own considerations (see [2] for a good
> list).  Maintainers' preferences bring experience and creative thought
> into the process, and contributors must take them into account.
> 
> 2) by introducing agent instructions that help the contributor drive
> the design and understand the code produced by the LLM;
> 
> 3) by introducing an "AI-used-for" trailer that scopes areas where
> Signed-off-by cannot guarantee full control of provenance.
> 
> This series reflects feedback from earlier requests for comments, and
> even earlier discussions with members of the QEMU community.  Thanks to
> everyone who provided feedback on earlier drafts.
> 
> Paolo

things i care about are here so

Acked-by: Michael S. Tsirkin <mst@redhat.com>

> v3->v4:
> - rework opening text [Daniel]
> - exempt "official project agents" from not being able to post to
>   GitLab [Alex]
> - explicitly forbid clean room reimplementation [Kevin/Daniel]
> - remove "The DCO still certifies that the contributor has the legal
>   right to submit code in general" paragraph, replace with a note
>   that "AI-used-for" attests respecting the policies and is considered
>   enough for DCO [Daniel, Kevin]
> - make the requirement to "understand and explain your changes"
>   more prominent
> - small edits for grammar and clarity
> 
> v2->v3:
> - remove parser example, replace with "adaptations of existing code"
> - when LLMs are used for boilerplate, "highly recommend" disclosure
>   for "non-trivial, functional code".  The idea here is to avoid
>   having to disclose using AI to apply e.g. changes related to
>   automatic code review, and leaving people some leeway.
> - clarify split between DCO (legal right to submit code in general)
>   and AI-used-for acknowledging that the submitter cannot audit LLM
>   output against e.g. the training data.
> - clarify the defense-in-depth/swiss-cheese approach to limit the
>   risk of copyright violations from LLM output
> - mention that pre-arrangement is not an entirely new concept
> - mention that maintainers can demand larger changes than for human-written code
> - do not mention inclusion of the prompt
> - add checkpatch.pl hunk, changing the phrasing of "no AI" lint
> - rebase AGENTS.md on top of existing file, split
> - drop CLAUDE.md/GEMINI.md symlinks, already done via .claude/.gemini
> 
> [1] https://lore.kernel.org/qemu-devel/CANCZdfrTwfrK0wnuL2cPVF_9W2-8PXtJeHkgkTP+Uv2sT8s0Ng@mail.gmail.com/
> [2] https://lore.kernel.org/qemu-devel/CAFEAcA860fF_+ffk=cXiYyFoQo0wCSUJ6b=7nVLLCwKhP6Nwxw@mail.gmail.com/
> 
> Paolo Bonzini (4):
>   docs/devel: relax policy on AI-generated contributions
>   AGENTS.md: add final instructions
>   AGENTS.md: let agents know what the participation rules are
>   AGENTS.md: make the human part of the design process
> 
>  docs/devel/code-provenance.rst |  71 +----------
>  docs/devel/index-process.rst   |   1 +
>  docs/devel/llm-usage.rst       | 213 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  AGENTS.md                      | 137 +++++++++++++++++++--
>  scripts/checkpatch.pl          |   5 +-
>  5 files changed, 347 insertions(+), 80 deletions(-)
>  create mode 100644 docs/devel/llm-usage.rst
> 
> -- 
> 2.55.0