From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from mail-08.mail-europe.com (mail-08.mail-europe.com [57.129.93.249]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by smtp.subspace.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id CD4463A9D9D; Mon, 20 Apr 2026 14:28:04 +0000 (UTC) Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; arc=none smtp.client-ip=57.129.93.249 ARC-Seal:i=1; a=rsa-sha256; d=subspace.kernel.org; s=arc-20240116; t=1776695288; cv=none; b=Ye5LbWZqt8Fnb1bcw/JIEp71m72Zv/8se3iLE09e5QVTz/USYcSqskmWLIGAf0nytc80bbeh01wxbh65CKLVKJOT3+4O7dXu0s/VV1E+1EPPzMg20hlhjc+zEWw/xv/zyNwzQ/+6r1MQkQwyoHe5Zp3K2R1V8Xp1lp0umfAoiWc= ARC-Message-Signature:i=1; a=rsa-sha256; d=subspace.kernel.org; s=arc-20240116; t=1776695288; c=relaxed/simple; bh=/PcTdK1h8kwNooUf9BUoU7EzyjDEqdpQ/JAWGtWVJrA=; h=Date:To:From:Cc:Subject:Message-ID:MIME-Version:Content-Type; b=qP2aUli5dKkUqXzj0++qtqjUfAe+6R2EUDsCuxvnmZKO+ueU124ahTXYUDI4MWjI8fa6fUfCs8zYb5AOHnuCQeV+X09G5vQaOFfVQtL7ypujQedE7PVATjUXp2n//PjH+LaVaxonnNtNPgceoGLodYXtFYM82fceGvYmKBBdZfk= ARC-Authentication-Results:i=1; smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dmarc=pass (p=quarantine dis=none) header.from=truealter.com; spf=pass smtp.mailfrom=truealter.com; dkim=pass (2048-bit key) header.d=truealter.com header.i=@truealter.com header.b=KB5/4Zhx; arc=none smtp.client-ip=57.129.93.249 Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dmarc=pass (p=quarantine dis=none) header.from=truealter.com Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; spf=pass smtp.mailfrom=truealter.com Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dkim=pass (2048-bit key) header.d=truealter.com header.i=@truealter.com header.b="KB5/4Zhx" DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=truealter.com; s=protonmail; t=1776695273; x=1776954473; bh=51Yg2gjpI8RiSgZOWoyjCEc3bs4AEIyrwgizLJnVA3k=; h=Date:To:From:Cc:Subject:Message-ID:Feedback-ID:From:To:Cc:Date: Subject:Reply-To:Feedback-ID:Message-ID:BIMI-Selector; b=KB5/4Zhxr7yIQe+iwK8jHia1U7Ffgl+PHrU7/+vo5RoRcKvM33T+iJaEHCPvMZUJt F7XBIwGBa2U2NxJwQo3IHBUC9chn9qzNTK7Q3TcYnAskwtS5o4O/nYYHiATJ3Mi3Dr UivujbDAyINTPRLF3kcUl3tWUz+vi8xzVL0kOqmLquUTU5KdYqiYeGTG2Qs1IUHSjS aORhH3uzVlAJgIpPp2upOQRivDmV4r9z8LpGg4g4Krs/zokp2zuZ4LH8df52A6c9FO HqpFV7UC6/zKyTBhwaaNP352AJSr58xTN0S2jgP6y8zk4m5PcNIai8ONTWu7ZzGUps MhdFyA5F7g60w== Date: Mon, 20 Apr 2026 14:27:46 +0000 To: Jonathan Corbet , Shuah Khan From: Blake Morrison Cc: workflows@vger.kernel.org, linux-doc@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Blake Morrison Subject: [PATCH] Documentation: coding-assistants: add optional Acted-By: trailer Message-ID: <20260420142741.3187814-1-blake@truealter.com> Feedback-ID: 187617253:user:proton X-Pm-Message-ID: 5a4112a0fbe40da112428c99a06b241beb122efc Precedence: bulk X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable The existing policy correctly separates AI tool attribution (Assisted-by:) from legal accountability (Signed-off-by:). In practice, contributors increasingly work across pseudonymous and legal-name contexts, and a third slot -- identifying the human sovereign identity under which the work was performed -- lets downstream tooling (CI, provenance trackers, identity systems) bind a commit to a stable handle without disturbing the DCO. Add Acted-By: as an optional, informational companion trailer. It does not replace Signed-off-by:, does not change DCO requirements, and does not mandate any format; the out-of-tree draft-morrison-identity-attributed-commits defines one such scheme, but contributors are free to use any handle form they prefer. The three trailers then map cleanly: * Assisted-by: -- what tool drafted this * Acted-By: -- who the human was, as a handle * Signed-off-by: -- legal DCO attestation This mirrors the informal separation already present in commits that carry both a pseudonymous Reported-by: and a separate Signed-off-by:. Signed-off-by: Blake Morrison --- Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst | 13 +++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 13 insertions(+) diff --git a/Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst b/Documentation/pr= ocess/coding-assistants.rst index 899f4459c..b1d2d2f66 100644 --- a/Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst +++ b/Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst @@ -57,3 +57,16 @@ Basic development tools (git, gcc, make, editors) should= not be listed. Example:: =20 Assisted-by: Claude:claude-3-opus coccinelle sparse + +Contributors may optionally add an ``Acted-By:`` tag identifying the +human sovereign identity under which the work was performed, in a form +stable across pseudonymous and legal-name contexts:: + + Acted-By: handle + +``Acted-By:`` is informational. It does not replace ``Signed-off-by:``; +DCO attestation remains mandatory. Where ``Assisted-by:`` identifies +*what tooling* contributed, ``Acted-By:`` identifies *who* the human +was, as a stable handle. Handle format is out of scope for this +document; draft-morrison-identity-attributed-commits in the IETF +document stream describes one such scheme. --=20 2.53.0