Re: [PATCH] Documentation: remove the requirement for LLM attribution

[Laurent Pinchart <laurent.pinchart@ideasonboard.com>]

On Thu, Jul 02, 2026 at 10:32:48AM -0400, Jeff Layton wrote:
> We've had this requirement in place in the Documentation for several
> months, but it's becoming clear that the signal to noise ratio from this
> is quite low.
> 
> 1/ It's not universally followed. While many people do try to attribute
> the LLMs in good faith, not everyone does for various reasons.
> 
> 2/ It basically serves as free advertising for proprietary LLM companies.
> 
> 3/ It's not clear why we want to collect this info in the first place.
> 
> Given that the data this provides is flawed at best and is being
> collected for a purpose that isn't clear, let's just kill the
> requirement for these tags from the kernel at large.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Jeff Layton <jlayton@kernel.org>
> ---
> Christian had proposed watering down the LLM attribution, but I think
> it's not productive to try and track this until we have a clearer sense
> of what we want to do with this information and how to make it more
> reliable.
> ---
>  Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst  | 22 ----------------------
>  Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst | 10 ----------

You're missing scripts/checkpatch.pl.

>  2 files changed, 32 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst b/Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst
> index 899f4459c52d..c4cc0917fc92 100644
> --- a/Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst
> +++ b/Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst
> @@ -35,25 +35,3 @@ is responsible for:
>  * Ensuring compliance with licensing requirements
>  * 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: AGENT_NAME:MODEL_VERSION [TOOL1] [TOOL2]
> -
> -Where:
> -
> -* ``AGENT_NAME`` is the name of the AI tool or framework
> -* ``MODEL_VERSION`` is the specific model version used
> -* ``[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: Claude:claude-3-opus coccinelle sparse

Documentation/process/generated-content.rst still clearly requests
contributors to disclose usage of code-generation tools. Even if we drop
the Assisted-by tag, I think it is useful to mention the requirement
here (probably including a link to generated-content.rst).

> diff --git a/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst b/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst
> index cc6a1f73d7f2..b74c38aa9770 100644
> --- a/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst
> +++ b/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst
> @@ -634,16 +634,6 @@ 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
> 
> ---
> base-commit: 665159e246749578d4e4bfe106ee3b74edcdab18
> change-id: 20260702-aidoc-7e18f221d63a

-- 
Regards,

Laurent Pinchart