DEV-TOOLSApril 10, 20261 min read7 views

AI assistance when contributing to the Linux kernel

The Linux kernel community has established formal guidelines for using AI tools in development, emphasizing human accountability and mandatory attribution tags.

This document provides guidance for AI tools and developers using AI assistance when contributing to the Linux kernel.

AI tools helping with Linux kernel development should follow the standard kernel development process:

Documentation/process/development-process.rst
Documentation/process/coding-style.rst
Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst

All contributions must comply with the kernel's licensing requirements:

All code must be compatible with GPL-2.0-only
Use appropriate SPDX license identifiers
See Documentation/process/license-rules.rst for details

AI agents MUST NOT add Signed-off-by tags. Only humans can legally certify the Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO). The human submitter is responsible for:

Reviewing all AI-generated code
Ensuring compliance with licensing requirements
Adding their own Signed-off-by tag to certify the DCO
Taking full responsibility for the contribution

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

Source: Hacker News

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