Re: [PATCH] coding-assistants: simplify attribution

On Wed, 2026-07-22 at 14:34 -0600, Jonathan Corbet wrote:
> As suggested by Christian, I have applied his patch to a branch and
> simplified the changelog, see below.
> 
> I'm nervous about applying it still because I don't think it's my role
> to set this sort of policy; I really want to feel that there is a
> consensus behind it.  So there's some additional CCs here because I
> would like to hear from some folks:
> 
> - This policy document originally came out of the TAB; is the TAB (on
>   CC) OK with this change?
> 
> - At least one maintainer (on CC) have said that they currently strip
>   Assisted-by tags out of patches before applying them, a practice that
>   would seem to undermine the whole policy.  Would this change be
>   sufficient to end that practice?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> jon
> 
> From c31aa376a355e3b84b9e87ae1dbe19b394d4c82c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
> From: Christian Brauner <[email protected]>
> Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2026 17:54:48 +0200
> Subject: [PATCH] coding-assistants: simplify attribution
> 
> The requirement to identify specific models used in the Assisted-by tag
> provides free advertising to proprietary software companies while adding
> little or no useful information.  Change the requirement to simply:
> 
>   Assisted-by: LLM
> 
> to capture the fact that an LLM was used without tracking which one.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner (Amutable) <[email protected]>
> Reviewed-by: Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM) <[email protected]>
> Reviewed-by: Jeff Layton <[email protected]>
> Reviewed-by: Jori Koolstra <[email protected]>
> Message-ID: <[email protected]>
> Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet <[email protected]>
> ---
>  Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst | 8 ++------
>  1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst b/Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst
> index 899f4459c52d..fe34f3e7e828 100644
> --- a/Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst
> +++ b/Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst
> @@ -43,12 +43,8 @@ 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]
> +  Assisted-by: LLM [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)
>  
> @@ -56,4 +52,4 @@ Basic development tools (git, gcc, make, editors) should not be listed.
>  
>  Example::
>  
> -  Assisted-by: Claude:claude-3-opus coccinelle sparse
> +  Assisted-by: LLM coccinelle sparse

One thing that needs to be changed in conjunction with this is
checkpatch.pl. When I try to use the new format, I get:

● a9b9b7e55379: btrfs: pre-allocate delayed dir index for non-overwrite rename
  ● checkpatch.pl: :2036: WARNING: Assisted-by expects 'AGENT_NAME:MODEL_VERSION [TOOL1] [TOOL2]' format

This patch fixes it for me, but I'm not sure it's restrictive enough.
Jon, feel free to fold this into the Documentation patch, or I can send
it separately if this seems right.

-----------------------8<-------------------------

[PATCH] checkpatch.pl: adapt to new Assisted-by: format

Signed-off-by: Jeff Layton <[email protected]>
---
 scripts/checkpatch.pl | 7 ++++---
 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/scripts/checkpatch.pl b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
index 2b7a42bbdd94..7961d9584bc5 100755
--- a/scripts/checkpatch.pl
+++ b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
@@ -3124,11 +3124,12 @@ sub process {
 				}
 			}
 
-			# Assisted-by uses AGENT_NAME:MODEL_VERSION format, not email
+			# Assisted-by uses a free-form value (e.g. "LLM"), not an
+			# email address, so skip the email format checks below.
 			if ($sign_off =~ /^Assisted-by:/i) {
-				if ($email !~ /^\S+:\S+/) {
+				if ($email =~ /^\s*$/) {
 					WARN("BAD_SIGN_OFF",
-					     "Assisted-by expects 'AGENT_NAME:MODEL_VERSION [TOOL1] [TOOL2]' format\n" . $herecurr);
+					     "Assisted-by requires a value\n" . $herecurr);
 				}
 				next;
 			}
-- 
2.55.0