From 8e8eebd7858c320b10c8aef9f5e335e19c5344d3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Tyler Trahan Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2025 08:24:58 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] Doc: Define policy on AI usage in OpenTTD development (#14537) --- CONTRIBUTING.md | 23 +++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 23 insertions(+) diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md index 668d73d700..fe1687daca 100644 --- a/CONTRIBUTING.md +++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md @@ -196,6 +196,29 @@ These include: You may also want the guide to [compiling OpenTTD](./COMPILING.md). +## Use of AI + +OpenTTD is a labour of love, created by people. + +Please refrain from submitting issues or pull requests that have been generated by an LLM or other fully-automated tools. +Any submission that is in violation of this policy will be closed, and the submitter may be blocked from this repository without warning. + +If you submit an issue, you need to understand what your issue description is saying. +You need to be able to answer questions about your bug report or feature request. +Using an AI tool to _proofread_ your issue/comment text is acceptable. Using an AI tool to _write_ your issue/comment text is not. + +If you submit a pull request, you need to understand what every line of code you've changed does. +If you can't explain why your PR is doing something, then do not submit it. +Using an AI tool to generate entire lines of code is unacceptable. + +The rationale behind this policy is that automated contributions are a waste of the maintainers' time. +Humans spend their time and brainpower reviewing every submission. +Issues or pull requests generated by automation tools create an imbalance of effort between the submitter and the reviewer. +Nobody learns anything when a maintainer reviews code written by an LLM. + +Additionally, AI-generated code conflicts with this project's license (GPL v2), since you cannot truly release code for use if you didn't author it yourself. + + ## Project goals ### What are the goals of the official branch?