From 65539d0d54faef71d49afc23a7b6fd0a875d2bcb Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Leah Amelia Chen Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2025 18:21:17 +0800 Subject: [PATCH 1/4] CONTRIBUTING: limit AI assistance to code only I think at this point all moderators and helpers can agree with me in that LLM-generated responses are a blight upon this Earth. Also probably worth putting in a clause against AI-generated assets (cf. the Commit Goods situation) --- CONTRIBUTING.md | 39 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------- 1 file changed, 32 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-) diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md index b4285f42f..a5f9213c0 100644 --- a/CONTRIBUTING.md +++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md @@ -23,8 +23,38 @@ it, please check out our ["Developing Ghostty"](HACKING.md) document as well. If you are using any kind of AI assistance while contributing to Ghostty, **this must be disclosed in the pull request**, along with the extent to which AI assistance was used (e.g. docs only vs. code generation). -As a small exception, trivial tab-completion doesn't need to be disclosed, -so long as it is limited to single keywords or short phrases. + +**We currently restrict AI assistance to code changes only.** +No AI-generated media, e.g. artwork, icons, videos and other assets is +allowed, as it goes against the methodology and ethos behind Ghostty. +While AI-assisted code can help with productive prototyping, creative +inspiration and even automated bugfinding, we have currently found zero +benefit to AI-generated assets. Instead, we are far more interested and +invested in funding professional work done by human designers and artists. +If you intend to submit AI-generated assets to Ghostty, sorry, +**we are not interested**. + +Likewise, all community interactions, including all comments on issues and +discussions and all PR titles and descriptions **must be composed by a human**. +Community moderators and Ghostty maintainers reserve the right to mark +AI-generated responses as spam or disruptive content, and ban users who have +been repeatedly caught relying entirely on LLMs during interactions. + +> [!NOTE] +> If your English isn't the best and you are currently relying on an LLM to +> translate your responses, don't fret — usually we maintainers will be able +> to understand your messages well enough. We'd like to encourage real humans +> to interact with each other more, and the positive impact of genuine, +> responsive yet imperfect human interaction more than makes up for any +> language barrier. +> +> Please write your responses yourself, to the best of your ability. +> We greatly appreciate it. Thank you. ❤️ + +Minor exceptions to this policy include trivial AI-generated tab completion +functionality, as it usually does not impact the quality of the code and +do not need to be disclosed, and commit titles and messages, which are often +generated by AI coding agents. The submitter must have also tested the pull request on all impacted platforms, and it's **highly discouraged** to code for an unfamiliar platform @@ -32,11 +62,6 @@ with AI assistance alone: if you only have a macOS machine, do **not** ask AI to write the equivalent GTK code, and vice versa — someone else with more expertise will eventually get to it and do it for you. -Even though using AI to generate responses on a PR is allowed when properly -disclosed, **we do not encourage you to do so**. Often, the positive impact -of genuine, responsive human interaction more than makes up for any language -barrier. ❤️ - An example disclosure: > This PR was written primarily by Claude Code. From 5e049e1b3af15db4878104b87eb7646caa1fd356 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Leah Amelia Chen Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2025 18:46:05 +0800 Subject: [PATCH 2/4] CONTRIBUTING: AI-assisted != AI-generated --- CONTRIBUTING.md | 23 ++++++++++++----------- 1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-) diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md index a5f9213c0..75aa42676 100644 --- a/CONTRIBUTING.md +++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md @@ -17,14 +17,22 @@ it, please check out our ["Developing Ghostty"](HACKING.md) document as well. > [!IMPORTANT] > -> If you are using **any kind of AI assistance** to contribute to Ghostty, -> it must be disclosed in the pull request. +> The Ghostty project allows AI-**assisted** _code contributions_, which +> must be properly disclosed in the pull request. If you are using any kind of AI assistance while contributing to Ghostty, **this must be disclosed in the pull request**, along with the extent to which AI assistance was used (e.g. docs only vs. code generation). -**We currently restrict AI assistance to code changes only.** +**Note that AI _assistance_ does not equal AI _generation_**. We require +a significant amount of human accountability, involvement and interaction +even within AI-assisted contributions. Contributors are required to be able +to understand the AI-assisted output, and be able to reason with it and +answer critical questions about it. Should a PR see no visible human +accountability and involvement, or it is so broken that it requires significant +rework to be acceptable, **we reserve the right to close it without hesitation**. + +**In addition, we currently restrict AI assistance to code changes only.** No AI-generated media, e.g. artwork, icons, videos and other assets is allowed, as it goes against the methodology and ethos behind Ghostty. While AI-assisted code can help with productive prototyping, creative @@ -32,7 +40,7 @@ inspiration and even automated bugfinding, we have currently found zero benefit to AI-generated assets. Instead, we are far more interested and invested in funding professional work done by human designers and artists. If you intend to submit AI-generated assets to Ghostty, sorry, -**we are not interested**. +we are not interested. Likewise, all community interactions, including all comments on issues and discussions and all PR titles and descriptions **must be composed by a human**. @@ -85,13 +93,6 @@ work than any human. That isn't the world we live in today, and in most cases it's generating slop. I say this despite being a fan of and using them successfully myself (with heavy supervision)! -When using AI assistance, we expect a fairly high level of accountability -and responsibility from contributors, and expect them to understand the code -that is produced and be able to answer critical questions about it. It -isn't a maintainers job to review a PR so broken that it requires -significant rework to be acceptable, and we **reserve the right to close -these PRs without hesitation**. - Please be respectful to maintainers and disclose AI assistance. ## Quick Guide From 8a1bb215c13e27f16e46d74bf59a48fc730d9b1b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Leah Amelia Chen Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2025 18:54:22 +0800 Subject: [PATCH 3/4] CONTRIBUTING: further clarifications --- CONTRIBUTING.md | 11 +++++++---- 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-) diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md index 75aa42676..d5fb606b4 100644 --- a/CONTRIBUTING.md +++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md @@ -27,10 +27,10 @@ which AI assistance was used (e.g. docs only vs. code generation). **Note that AI _assistance_ does not equal AI _generation_**. We require a significant amount of human accountability, involvement and interaction even within AI-assisted contributions. Contributors are required to be able -to understand the AI-assisted output, and be able to reason with it and -answer critical questions about it. Should a PR see no visible human -accountability and involvement, or it is so broken that it requires significant -rework to be acceptable, **we reserve the right to close it without hesitation**. +to understand the AI-assisted output, reason with it and answer critical +questions about it. Should a PR see no visible human accountability and +involvement, or it is so broken that it requires significant rework to be +acceptable, **we reserve the right to close it without hesitation**. **In addition, we currently restrict AI assistance to code changes only.** No AI-generated media, e.g. artwork, icons, videos and other assets is @@ -57,6 +57,9 @@ been repeatedly caught relying entirely on LLMs during interactions. > language barrier. > > Please write your responses yourself, to the best of your ability. +> If you do feel the need to polish your sentences, however, please use +> dedicated translation software rather than an LLM. +> > We greatly appreciate it. Thank you. ❤️ Minor exceptions to this policy include trivial AI-generated tab completion From 315c8852a8e4746dd352486486abf8ab982ad87d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Leah Amelia Chen Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2025 18:58:52 +0800 Subject: [PATCH 4/4] CONTRIBUTING: reorganize paragraphs --- CONTRIBUTING.md | 27 ++++++++++++++------------- 1 file changed, 14 insertions(+), 13 deletions(-) diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md index d5fb606b4..8b8c4d7f2 100644 --- a/CONTRIBUTING.md +++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md @@ -24,13 +24,20 @@ If you are using any kind of AI assistance while contributing to Ghostty, **this must be disclosed in the pull request**, along with the extent to which AI assistance was used (e.g. docs only vs. code generation). -**Note that AI _assistance_ does not equal AI _generation_**. We require -a significant amount of human accountability, involvement and interaction -even within AI-assisted contributions. Contributors are required to be able -to understand the AI-assisted output, reason with it and answer critical -questions about it. Should a PR see no visible human accountability and -involvement, or it is so broken that it requires significant rework to be -acceptable, **we reserve the right to close it without hesitation**. +The submitter must have also tested the pull request on all impacted +platforms, and it's **highly discouraged** to code for an unfamiliar platform +with AI assistance alone: if you only have a macOS machine, do **not** ask AI +to write the equivalent GTK code, and vice versa — someone else with more +expertise will eventually get to it and do it for you. + +> [!WARNING] +> **Note that AI _assistance_ does not equal AI _generation_**. We require +> a significant amount of human accountability, involvement and interaction +> even within AI-assisted contributions. Contributors are required to be able +> to understand the AI-assisted output, reason with it and answer critical +> questions about it. Should a PR see no visible human accountability and +> involvement, or it is so broken that it requires significant rework to be +> acceptable, **we reserve the right to close it without hesitation**. **In addition, we currently restrict AI assistance to code changes only.** No AI-generated media, e.g. artwork, icons, videos and other assets is @@ -67,12 +74,6 @@ functionality, as it usually does not impact the quality of the code and do not need to be disclosed, and commit titles and messages, which are often generated by AI coding agents. -The submitter must have also tested the pull request on all impacted -platforms, and it's **highly discouraged** to code for an unfamiliar platform -with AI assistance alone: if you only have a macOS machine, do **not** ask AI -to write the equivalent GTK code, and vice versa — someone else with more -expertise will eventually get to it and do it for you. - An example disclosure: > This PR was written primarily by Claude Code.