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

[Geert Uytterhoeven]

Hi David,

Thanks for your patch!

On Tue, 7 Jul 2026 at 11:53, David Hildenbrand (Arm) <david@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> --- a/Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst
> +++ b/Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst
> @@ -40,20 +40,37 @@ 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::
> +helps track the evolving role of AI in the development process. Further,
> +for reviewers and maintainers it is also crucially important to know how
> +AI tools were used.
>
> -  Assisted-by: AGENT_NAME:MODEL_VERSION [TOOL1] [TOOL2]
> +Contributions that used AI to generate significant portions of code,
> +comments, or patch descriptions must include an Assisted-by tag in the
> +following format::
>
> -Where (preferred):
> +  Assisted-by: LLM # brief description of usage
> +
> +Or alternatively::
> +
> +  Assisted-by: AGENT_NAME:MODEL_VERSION # brief description of usage
> +
> +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)
> +
> +If other tools were used, they should be specified through a dedicated
> +Assisted-by tag in the following format::
> +
> +  Assisted-by: [TOOL1] [TOOL2]
> +
> +Where ``[TOOL1] [TOOL2]`` are specialized analysis tools used
> +(e.g., coccinelle, sparse, smatch, clang-tidy)

Unlike LLMs above, all of these are deterministic...

>
>  Basic development tools (git, gcc, make, editors) should not be listed.

... just like these.
So why treat them different?

Gr{oetje,eeting}s,

                        Geert

-- 
Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But
when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that.
                                -- Linus Torvalds