AI/LLM/Agentic coding policy for contributors

We have been getting more AI contributions recently so maybe it's time to adopt an explicit policy. Examples of recent pull requests generated (or assisted) by AI:

• #4266
• #4270
• #4274

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Personally I don't have anything against accepting LLM/agentic contributions, provided they meet the same quality standards as human contributions and are reviewed by humans. I'm less inclined to spend my time on reviewing a pull request if it is clearly written by AI though. Thus I would favor a policy that does not forbid AI contributions but requires disclosure. We could take inspiration from Ghostty's AI policy which I think is pretty reasonable:

The Ghostty project has strict rules for AI usage:

• All AI usage in any form must be disclosed. You must state the tool you used (e.g. Claude Code, Cursor, Amp) along with the extent that the work was AI-assisted.

• The human-in-the-loop must fully understand all code. If you can't explain what your changes do and how they interact with the greater system without the aid of AI tools, do not contribute to this project.

• Issues and discussions can use AI assistance but must have a full human-in-the-loop. This means that any content generated with AI must have been reviewed and edited by a human before submission. AI is very good at being overly verbose and including noise that distracts from the main point. Humans must do their research and trim this down.

• No AI-generated media is allowed (art, images, videos, audio, etc.). Text and code are the only acceptable AI-generated content, per the other rules in this policy.

• Bad AI drivers will be denounced People who produce bad contributions that are clearly AI (slop) will be added to our public denouncement list. This list will block all future contributions. Additionally, the list is public and may be used by other projects to be aware of bad actors. We love to help junior developers learn and grow, but if you're interested in that then don't use AI, and we'll help you. I'm sorry that bad AI drivers have ruined this for you.

These rules apply only to outside contributions to Ghostty. Maintainers are exempt from these rules and may use AI tools at their discretion; they've proven themselves trustworthy to apply good judgment.

or from curl's policy:

When contributing a pull request you should of course always make sure that the proposal is good quality and a best effort that follows our guidelines. A basic rule of thumb is that if someone can spot that the contribution was made with the help of AI, you have more work to do.

We can accept code written with the help of AI into the project, but the code must still follow coding standards, be written clearly, be documented, feature test cases and adhere to all the normal requirements we have.