[PATCH] docs: remove Assisted-by references

[PATCH] docs: remove Assisted-by references

[Sasha Levin]

The Maintainers Summit reached consensus to deprecate the Assisted-by
tag. Remove the documentation requiring it.

Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>
---
 Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst   | 21 +------------------
 Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst  | 10 ---------
 .../it_IT/process/submitting-patches.rst      | 10 ---------
 scripts/checkpatch.pl                         | 11 ----------
 4 files changed, 1 insertion(+), 51 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst b/Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst
index 051f0d819f68e..509dbf23a099b 100644
--- a/Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst
+++ b/Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst
@@ -40,24 +40,6 @@ is responsible for:
 * Adding their own Signed-off-by tag to certify the DCO
 * Taking full responsibility for the contribution
 
-Attribution
-===========
-
-When AI tools contribute to kernel development, proper attribution
-helps track the evolving role of AI in the development process.
-Contributions should include an Assisted-by tag in the following format::
-
-  Assisted-by: LLM [TOOL1] [TOOL2]
-
-* ``[TOOL1] [TOOL2]`` are optional specialized analysis tools used
-  (e.g., coccinelle, sparse, smatch, clang-tidy)
-
-Basic development tools (git, gcc, make, editors) should not be listed.
-
-Example::
-
-  Assisted-by: LLM coccinelle sparse
-
 Procedure for finding and fixing bugs
 =====================================
 
@@ -82,8 +64,7 @@ these steps:
    another one. The fix must not add build warnings and must pass the
    checkpatch.pl checks (see submitting-patches.rst).
 6. Commit the working fix with a detailed message describing the problem, the
-   solution and a Fixes tag. Do not add a Signed-off-by tag, and add an
-   Assisted-by tag, as described above.
+   solution and a Fixes tag. Do not add a Signed-off-by tag.
 7. Identify the maintainers and lists using scripts/get_maintainer.pl.
    Documentation/process/security-bugs.rst shows how to do that.
 8. Indicate what could not be done. If the fix could not be built or tested, or
diff --git a/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst b/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst
index 7ae79452e1b46..5f4e0156cca78 100644
--- a/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst
+++ b/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst
@@ -632,16 +632,6 @@ bugzilla.kernel.org is a public place in this sense, but email addresses
 used there are private; so do not expose them in tags, unless the person
 used them in earlier contributions.
 
-Using Assisted-by:
-------------------
-
-If you used any sort of advanced coding tool in the creation of your patch,
-you need to acknowledge that use by adding an Assisted-by tag.  Failure to
-do so may impede the acceptance of your work.  Please see
-Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst for details regarding the
-acknowledgment of coding assistants.
-
-
 .. _the_canonical_patch_format:
 
 The canonical patch format
diff --git a/Documentation/translations/it_IT/process/submitting-patches.rst b/Documentation/translations/it_IT/process/submitting-patches.rst
index a742610cb0709..d0e0d6c9ecc2e 100644
--- a/Documentation/translations/it_IT/process/submitting-patches.rst
+++ b/Documentation/translations/it_IT/process/submitting-patches.rst
@@ -691,16 +691,6 @@ un luogo pubblico, ma gli indirizzi email usati lì sono privati; quindi non
 esponeteli nelle etichette, a meno che la persona non li abbia già usati in
 contributi precedenti.
 
-Usare Assisted-by:
--------------------
-
-Se avete usato un qualsiasi tipo di strumento di assistenza avanzata alla
-scrittura del codice per la creazione della vostra patch, dovete darne atto
-aggiungendo un'etichetta Assisted-by.  Non farlo può ostacolare
-l'accettazione del vostro lavoro.  Fate riferimento a
-Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst per i dettagli su come dare
-atto dell'uso di assistenti alla scrittura del codice.
-
 .. _it_the_canonical_patch_format:
 
 Il formato canonico delle patch
diff --git a/scripts/checkpatch.pl b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
index 8a7787d228a63..c9840f5219c2a 100755
--- a/scripts/checkpatch.pl
+++ b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
@@ -655,7 +655,6 @@ our $signature_tags = qr{(?xi:
 	Reviewed-by:|
 	Reported-by:|
 	Suggested-by:|
-	Assisted-by:|
 	To:|
 	Cc:
 )};
@@ -3124,16 +3123,6 @@ sub process {
 				}
 			}
 
-			# Assisted-by uses a free-form value (e.g. "LLM"), not an
-			# email address, so skip the email format checks below.
-			if ($sign_off =~ /^Assisted-by:/i) {
-				if ($email =~ /^\s*$/) {
-					WARN("BAD_SIGN_OFF",
-					     "Assisted-by requires a value\n" . $herecurr);
-				}
-				next;
-			}
-
 			my ($email_name, $name_comment, $email_address, $comment) = parse_email($email);
 			my $suggested_email = format_email(($email_name, $name_comment, $email_address, $comment));
 			if ($suggested_email eq "") {
-- 
2.53.0

Re: [PATCH] docs: remove Assisted-by references

[Laurent Pinchart]

Hi Sasha,

On Fri, Oct 09, 2026 at 04:31:37AM -0400, Sasha Levin wrote:
> The Maintainers Summit reached consensus to deprecate the Assisted-by
> tag. Remove the documentation requiring it.

Please explain the rationale in the commit message. I'm sure you know
how sensitive this topic is for many people, the more opaque changes are
the more questions and frustration they will generate.

> Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>
> ---
>  Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst   | 21 +------------------
>  Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst  | 10 ---------
>  .../it_IT/process/submitting-patches.rst      | 10 ---------
>  scripts/checkpatch.pl                         | 11 ----------
>  4 files changed, 1 insertion(+), 51 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst b/Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst
> index 051f0d819f68e..509dbf23a099b 100644
> --- a/Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst
> +++ b/Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst
> @@ -40,24 +40,6 @@ is responsible for:
>  * Adding their own Signed-off-by tag to certify the DCO
>  * Taking full responsibility for the contribution
>  
> -Attribution
> -===========
> -
> -When AI tools contribute to kernel development, proper attribution
> -helps track the evolving role of AI in the development process.
> -Contributions should include an Assisted-by tag in the following format::
> -
> -  Assisted-by: LLM [TOOL1] [TOOL2]
> -
> -* ``[TOOL1] [TOOL2]`` are optional specialized analysis tools used
> -  (e.g., coccinelle, sparse, smatch, clang-tidy)
> -
> -Basic development tools (git, gcc, make, editors) should not be listed.
> -
> -Example::
> -
> -  Assisted-by: LLM coccinelle sparse
> -
>  Procedure for finding and fixing bugs
>  =====================================
>  
> @@ -82,8 +64,7 @@ these steps:
>     another one. The fix must not add build warnings and must pass the
>     checkpatch.pl checks (see submitting-patches.rst).
>  6. Commit the working fix with a detailed message describing the problem, the
> -   solution and a Fixes tag. Do not add a Signed-off-by tag, and add an
> -   Assisted-by tag, as described above.
> +   solution and a Fixes tag. Do not add a Signed-off-by tag.
>  7. Identify the maintainers and lists using scripts/get_maintainer.pl.
>     Documentation/process/security-bugs.rst shows how to do that.
>  8. Indicate what could not be done. If the fix could not be built or tested, or
> diff --git a/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst b/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst
> index 7ae79452e1b46..5f4e0156cca78 100644
> --- a/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst
> +++ b/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst
> @@ -632,16 +632,6 @@ bugzilla.kernel.org is a public place in this sense, but email addresses
>  used there are private; so do not expose them in tags, unless the person
>  used them in earlier contributions.
>  
> -Using Assisted-by:
> -------------------
> -
> -If you used any sort of advanced coding tool in the creation of your patch,
> -you need to acknowledge that use by adding an Assisted-by tag.  Failure to
> -do so may impede the acceptance of your work.  Please see
> -Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst for details regarding the
> -acknowledgment of coding assistants.
> -
> -
>  .. _the_canonical_patch_format:
>  
>  The canonical patch format
> diff --git a/Documentation/translations/it_IT/process/submitting-patches.rst b/Documentation/translations/it_IT/process/submitting-patches.rst
> index a742610cb0709..d0e0d6c9ecc2e 100644
> --- a/Documentation/translations/it_IT/process/submitting-patches.rst
> +++ b/Documentation/translations/it_IT/process/submitting-patches.rst
> @@ -691,16 +691,6 @@ un luogo pubblico, ma gli indirizzi email usati lì sono privati; quindi non
>  esponeteli nelle etichette, a meno che la persona non li abbia già usati in
>  contributi precedenti.
>  
> -Usare Assisted-by:
> --------------------
> -
> -Se avete usato un qualsiasi tipo di strumento di assistenza avanzata alla
> -scrittura del codice per la creazione della vostra patch, dovete darne atto
> -aggiungendo un'etichetta Assisted-by.  Non farlo può ostacolare
> -l'accettazione del vostro lavoro.  Fate riferimento a
> -Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst per i dettagli su come dare
> -atto dell'uso di assistenti alla scrittura del codice.
> -
>  .. _it_the_canonical_patch_format:
>  
>  Il formato canonico delle patch
> diff --git a/scripts/checkpatch.pl b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
> index 8a7787d228a63..c9840f5219c2a 100755
> --- a/scripts/checkpatch.pl
> +++ b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
> @@ -655,7 +655,6 @@ our $signature_tags = qr{(?xi:
>  	Reviewed-by:|
>  	Reported-by:|
>  	Suggested-by:|
> -	Assisted-by:|
>  	To:|
>  	Cc:
>  )};
> @@ -3124,16 +3123,6 @@ sub process {
>  				}
>  			}
>  
> -			# Assisted-by uses a free-form value (e.g. "LLM"), not an
> -			# email address, so skip the email format checks below.
> -			if ($sign_off =~ /^Assisted-by:/i) {
> -				if ($email =~ /^\s*$/) {
> -					WARN("BAD_SIGN_OFF",
> -					     "Assisted-by requires a value\n" . $herecurr);
> -				}
> -				next;
> -			}
> -
>  			my ($email_name, $name_comment, $email_address, $comment) = parse_email($email);
>  			my $suggested_email = format_email(($email_name, $name_comment, $email_address, $comment));
>  			if ($suggested_email eq "") {

-- 
Regards,

Laurent Pinchart

Re: [PATCH] docs: remove Assisted-by references

[Krzysztof Kozlowski]

On 09/10/2026 10:31, Sasha Levin wrote:
> The Maintainers Summit reached consensus to deprecate the Assisted-by
> tag. Remove the documentation requiring it.

Please provide here some sort of arguments used in that summit
consensus/discussion. This basically reverts/changes previous consensus
[1], which is fine itself, but it lacks reasoning.

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/workflows/2026070224-unholy-commode-cf45@gregkh/

Best regards,
Krzysztof

Re: [PATCH] docs: remove Assisted-by references

[Sasha Levin]

On Fri, Oct 09, 2026 at 11:38:35AM +0200, Laurent Pinchart wrote:
>Hi Sasha,
>
>On Fri, Oct 09, 2026 at 04:31:37AM -0400, Sasha Levin wrote:
>> The Maintainers Summit reached consensus to deprecate the Assisted-by
>> tag. Remove the documentation requiring it.
>
>Please explain the rationale in the commit message. I'm sure you know
>how sensitive this topic is for many people, the more opaque changes are
>the more questions and frustration they will generate.

Ack, sorry. Let me withdraw this patch until the LWN coverage is up too.

For context, this wasn't even on the schedule: I believe it was Jon who asked
if anyone still find it useful, no one really voiced a strong opinion in favor,
so we suggested that we should just send a patch.

-- 
Thanks,
Sasha

Re: [PATCH] docs: remove Assisted-by references

[Greg KH]

On Fri, Oct 09, 2026 at 12:05:06PM +0200, Krzysztof Kozlowski wrote:
> On 09/10/2026 10:31, Sasha Levin wrote:
> > The Maintainers Summit reached consensus to deprecate the Assisted-by
> > tag. Remove the documentation requiring it.
> 
> Please provide here some sort of arguments used in that summit
> consensus/discussion. This basically reverts/changes previous consensus
> [1], which is fine itself, but it lacks reasoning.
> 
> [1] https://lore.kernel.org/workflows/2026070224-unholy-commode-cf45@gregkh/

I agree with this patch, but yes, it does need a bit more documentation
in the changelog to convey the discussion and consensus about it as it
is a "change in policy" here.

thanks,

greg k-h

Re: [PATCH] docs: remove Assisted-by references

[Jonathan Corbet]

Krzysztof Kozlowski <krzk@kernel.org> writes:

> On 09/10/2026 10:31, Sasha Levin wrote:
>> The Maintainers Summit reached consensus to deprecate the Assisted-by
>> tag. Remove the documentation requiring it.
>
> Please provide here some sort of arguments used in that summit
> consensus/discussion. This basically reverts/changes previous consensus
> [1], which is fine itself, but it lacks reasoning.
>
> [1] https://lore.kernel.org/workflows/2026070224-unholy-commode-cf45@gregkh/

I'm working on a report on the discussion, don't worry...Monday or
Tuesday probably.

jon

Re: [PATCH] docs: remove Assisted-by references

[Steven Rostedt]

On Fri, 09 Oct 2026 09:20:18 -0600
Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net> wrote:

> Krzysztof Kozlowski <krzk@kernel.org> writes:
> 
> > On 09/10/2026 10:31, Sasha Levin wrote:  
> >> The Maintainers Summit reached consensus to deprecate the Assisted-by
> >> tag. Remove the documentation requiring it.  
> >
> > Please provide here some sort of arguments used in that summit
> > consensus/discussion. This basically reverts/changes previous consensus
> > [1], which is fine itself, but it lacks reasoning.
> >
> > [1] https://lore.kernel.org/workflows/2026070224-unholy-commode-cf45@gregkh/  
> 
> I'm working on a report on the discussion, don't worry...Monday or
> Tuesday probably.

But changes like this should not rely on LWN articles. They need to be
presented in mailing list.

Honestly, I would like to have a "Vibe-coded-with:" tag. Why?, when I
do a git blame and want to ask the author why they did the change the
way they did, I would likely not expect much if they vibe coded it.

When we first started talking about what constitutes an Assisted-by tag
(using AI to debug, or review, or simply add templates), there wasn't
really any agreement to where it should stop. I have always been of the
idea that I want to know if someone actually wrote the code. If all you
did was use prompts, then you didn't write it. You simply instructed
a computer what to do. Much like helping a junior engineer. But with a
junior engineer, they would have the authorship and signed-off-by and
the kernel developer would likely just get "suggested-by". But we don't
do that for computers. But still it should be tagged that the author
didn't write the code somehow.

I wasn't at the maintainer summit to express my opinion so I'm doing it
here.

-- Steve

Re: [PATCH] docs: remove Assisted-by references

[Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM)]

+cc the participants from that thread FYI. The original patch is at [2].

On Fri, Oct 09, 2026 at 12:05:06PM +0200, Krzysztof Kozlowski wrote:
> On 09/10/2026 10:31, Sasha Levin wrote:
> > The Maintainers Summit reached consensus to deprecate the Assisted-by
> > tag. Remove the documentation requiring it.
>
> Please provide here some sort of arguments used in that summit
> consensus/discussion. This basically reverts/changes previous consensus
> [1], which is fine itself, but it lacks reasoning.
>
> [1] https://lore.kernel.org/workflows/2026070224-unholy-commode-cf45@gregkh/

Thanks for linking that! It is important to ack previous discussion on
this. Also LWN article is up now at [3].

I'm less bothered than you might think by this change.

The tag's useful for push back on review, but the only long-term strategy for
slop is to aggressively ignore it.

Linus has made that clear that that's fine.

What kills the project is having 1,000 slop submissions that 2 or 3 people have
to do something with.

The only long-term solution to that is to hit mark read 1,000 times :)

Sasha - maybe worth linking the LWN article now it's up in the commit message
and adding a little more detail around the decision?

Otherwise LGTM:

Acked-by: Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM) <ljs@kernel.org>

--
Cheers, Lorenzo

[2]:https://lore.kernel.org/all/20261009083137.3-1-sashal@kernel.org/
[3]:https://lwn.net/Articles/1099594/

Re: [PATCH] docs: remove Assisted-by references

[Kees Cook]

On Fri, Oct 09, 2026 at 04:31:37AM -0400, Sasha Levin wrote:
> The Maintainers Summit reached consensus to deprecate the Assisted-by
> tag. Remove the documentation requiring it.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>

Yup, it has become as redundant as specifying what editor I use. ;)

Reviewed-by: Kees Cook <kees@kernel.org>

-- 
Kees Cook

Re: [PATCH] docs: remove Assisted-by references

[Randy Dunlap]

On 10/12/26 9:24 PM, Kees Cook wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 09, 2026 at 04:31:37AM -0400, Sasha Levin wrote:
>> The Maintainers Summit reached consensus to deprecate the Assisted-by
>> tag. Remove the documentation requiring it.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>
> 
> Yup, it has become as redundant as specifying what editor I use. ;)
> 
> Reviewed-by: Kees Cook <kees@kernel.org>

and for those of us who don't know details about the discussion,
how is it redundant?
Do you assume that everyone now uses it (LLM), just as everyone
uses an editor?

I still agree with what GregKH said on July 2, 2026, in
https://lore.kernel.org/workflows/2026070224-unholy-commode-cf45@gregkh/


-- 
~Randy

Re: [PATCH] docs: remove Assisted-by references

[Greg KH]

On Mon, Oct 12, 2026 at 10:56:59PM -0700, Randy Dunlap wrote:
> 
> 
> On 10/12/26 9:24 PM, Kees Cook wrote:
> > On Fri, Oct 09, 2026 at 04:31:37AM -0400, Sasha Levin wrote:
> >> The Maintainers Summit reached consensus to deprecate the Assisted-by
> >> tag. Remove the documentation requiring it.
> >>
> >> Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>
> > 
> > Yup, it has become as redundant as specifying what editor I use. ;)
> > 
> > Reviewed-by: Kees Cook <kees@kernel.org>
> 
> and for those of us who don't know details about the discussion,
> how is it redundant?

lwn.net now has the "meeting notes" where this was discussed:
	https://lwn.net/Articles/1099594/

> Do you assume that everyone now uses it (LLM), just as everyone
> uses an editor?
> 
> I still agree with what GregKH said on July 2, 2026, in
> https://lore.kernel.org/workflows/2026070224-unholy-commode-cf45@gregkh/

As I stated elsewhere in this thread, I've now changed my mind, it
didn't work out at all and maintainers are really annoyed by it so let's
just drop it and focus on the content of the patch itself (and push back
on _ANYTHING_ you feel is wrong).

thanks,

greg k-h

Re: [PATCH] docs: remove Assisted-by references

[Kees Cook]

On Mon, Oct 12, 2026 at 10:56:59PM -0700, Randy Dunlap wrote:
> On 10/12/26 9:24 PM, Kees Cook wrote:
> > On Fri, Oct 09, 2026 at 04:31:37AM -0400, Sasha Levin wrote:
> >> The Maintainers Summit reached consensus to deprecate the Assisted-by
> >> tag. Remove the documentation requiring it.
> >>
> >> Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>
> > 
> > Yup, it has become as redundant as specifying what editor I use. ;)
> > 
> > Reviewed-by: Kees Cook <kees@kernel.org>
> 
> and for those of us who don't know details about the discussion,
> how is it redundant?

No, I mean I use an LLM constantly for almost all aspects of my
development work, in multiple dimensions, so if the old tag requirement
held, my email body template would just put "Assisted-by: LLM" in there
because at the very least, it drove the build and test stage. It was
redundant in the sense of "yeah, of course I used an LLM at some point
for this patch". ("This tag means nothing *from* me")

> Do you assume that everyone now uses it (LLM), just as everyone
> uses an editor?

I don't make that assumption, but I always held the position that the
tag was meaningless because it's the human wielding it that matters:
they either sent a good patch or a bad patch, and if it was mangled by
gmail or an LLM, it doesn't really matter. ("This tag means nothing *to*
me")

-Kees

-- 
Kees Cook

Re: [PATCH] docs: remove Assisted-by references

[Jori Koolstra]

> Op 12-10-2026 17:42 CEST schreef Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM) <ljs@kernel.org>:
> 
>  
> +cc the participants from that thread FYI. The original patch is at [2].
> 

Thanks, Lorenzo.

> On Fri, Oct 09, 2026 at 12:05:06PM +0200, Krzysztof Kozlowski wrote:
> > On 09/10/2026 10:31, Sasha Levin wrote:
> > > The Maintainers Summit reached consensus to deprecate the Assisted-by
> > > tag. Remove the documentation requiring it.
> >
> > Please provide here some sort of arguments used in that summit
> > consensus/discussion. This basically reverts/changes previous consensus
> > [1], which is fine itself, but it lacks reasoning.
> >
> > [1] https://lore.kernel.org/workflows/2026070224-unholy-commode-cf45@gregkh/
> 
> Thanks for linking that! It is important to ack previous discussion on
> this. Also LWN article is up now at [3].
> 
> I'm less bothered than you might think by this change.
> 
> The tag's useful for push back on review, but the only long-term strategy for
> slop is to aggressively ignore it.
> 
> Linus has made that clear that that's fine.
> 
> What kills the project is having 1,000 slop submissions that 2 or 3 people have
> to do something with.
> 
> The only long-term solution to that is to hit mark read 1,000 times :)
> 

There's a way to nuke drive-by authors and that is to require them to do
some kind of "proof-of-effort." So you want to contribute to the kernel?
Good, come to one of the OSS conferences, or LPC, or have some well-known
maintainer vouch for you, or do the kernel mentorship program. The point
is not that this cannot be gamed, but that the "gaming" in itself requires
some kind of investment, like proof-of-work.

We may miss the savant that for whatever reason cannot show up to a conference,
but Linux Foundation is already very supportive of funding people. And besides,
Linus has already made it clear that we can expect of people to be able to grow
into serious community members (which may include being able to effort time and/or
money for LLM access.)

This would solve most slop immediately, and we will know about LLM found bugs
anyway from cooperation with Anthropic and just the maintainers using LLMs.

Best,
Jori.

> Sasha - maybe worth linking the LWN article now it's up in the commit message
> and adding a little more detail around the decision?
> 
> Otherwise LGTM:
> 
> Acked-by: Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM) <ljs@kernel.org>
> 
> --
> Cheers, Lorenzo
> 
> [2]:https://lore.kernel.org/all/20261009083137.3-1-sashal@kernel.org/
> [3]:https://lwn.net/Articles/1099594/