[PATCH] Documentation: remove the requirement for LLM attribution
From: Jeff Layton
Date: Thu Jul 02 2026 - 10:33:54 EST
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@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
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 ----------
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
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
Best regards,
--
Jeff Layton <jlayton@xxxxxxxxxx>