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Generative AI Contribution Policy

Purpose

The Cortex project welcomes contributions that make use of generative AI (GenAI) tools. AI assistants can help contributors write code, explore the codebase, draft documentation, and improve productivity. However, humans bear full responsibility for every contribution they submit, regardless of how it was produced.

This policy applies to all repositories under the cortexproject GitHub organisation.

Permitted Use of AI Tools

The following uses of AI tools are encouraged and permitted:

  • Coding assistants - Using tools like GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, Cursor, or similar to help write, refactor, or debug code.
  • Codebase exploration - Querying AI tools to understand project architecture, locate relevant code, or learn conventions.
  • Documentation drafting - Generating initial drafts of documentation, comments, or commit messages.
  • PR review assistance - Using AI to help review code, identify potential issues, or suggest improvements.
  • Maintainer-configured review bots - Automated review bots configured by project maintainers.

Contributor Responsibilities

When using AI tools to assist with contributions, you must:

  1. Understand every line you submit. You must be able to independently explain any change in your contribution. "The AI wrote it" is not an acceptable justification during review.

  2. Review and validate AI output. Never submit AI-generated content verbatim without careful review. Verify correctness, check for hallucinated APIs or dependencies, and ensure the output follows Cortex conventions.

  3. Disclose significant AI usage. If AI generated the bulk of a contribution (e.g., an entire new feature, large refactors, or substantial documentation), note this in the PR description. Minor assistance (autocomplete, small suggestions) does not require disclosure.

  4. Honour the DCO. Your Signed-off-by line on each commit certifies the Developer Certificate of Origin for all content in that commit, including any AI-generated portions. You are attesting that you have the right to submit the work.

  5. Meet the same quality bar. AI-assisted contributions are held to the same standards as any other contribution: tests, documentation, CHANGELOG entries, passing CI, and adherence to the project's design patterns and conventions.

GitHub Communications

  • Issues, pull request reviews, and discussions must be substantively human-authored. Do not submit bulk AI-generated comments, reviews, or issue reports.
  • Sharing AI-generated analyses (e.g., "I asked an AI to summarise the failure modes and here is what it found") is acceptable when clearly attributed and verified by the contributor.
  • Do not use AI tools to generate large volumes of low-quality issues or review comments.

Maintainer Authority

Maintainers may:

  • Request disclosure of AI tool usage for any contribution.
  • Close or request revision of PRs or issues that appear to contain unreviewed AI-generated content.
  • Escalate persistent low-effort submissions through the project's normal Code of Conduct enforcement process.

Relationship to Other Policies

Document Purpose
Contributing Guide General contribution workflow and requirements
Code of Conduct Community behaviour standards
Governance Project governance and decision-making
AGENTS.md Technical guidance to AI coding agents working in this repo

AGENTS.md vs GENAI_POLICY.md: AGENTS.md provides instructions that AI coding agents consume when working with the codebase (build commands, architecture, conventions). This document (GENAI_POLICY.md) governs how human contributors use AI tools when preparing their contributions.

References