mirror-linux/Documentation/process
Dave Hansen a66437c279 Documentation: Provide guidelines for tool-generated content
In the last few years, the capabilities of coding tools have exploded.
As those capabilities have expanded, contributors and maintainers have
more and more questions about how and when to apply those
capabilities.

Add new Documentation to guide contributors on how to best use kernel
development tools, new and old.

Note, though, there are fundamentally no new or unique rules in this
new document. It clarifies expectations that the kernel community has
had for many years. For example, researchers are already asked to
disclose the tools they use to find issues by
Documentation/process/researcher-guidelines.rst. This new document
just reiterates existing best practices for development tooling.

In short: Please show your work and make sure your contribution is
easy to review.

Signed-off-by: Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@linux.intel.com>
Reviewed-by: Shuah Khan <shuah@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Kees Cook <kees@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
Reviewed-by: Miguel Ojeda <ojeda@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Luis Chamberlain <mcgrof@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: SeongJae Park <sj@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@intel.com>
Reviewed-by: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>
Reviewed-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Simon Glass <simon.glass@canonical.com>
Reviewed-by: Lee Jones <lee@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Lorenzo Stoakes <lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com>
Cc: NeilBrown <neilb@ownmail.net>
Cc: Lorenzo Stoakes <lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com>
Cc: Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@intel.com>
Cc: Theodore Ts'o <tytso@mit.edu>
Cc: Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>
Cc: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
Cc: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>
Cc: workflows@vger.kernel.org
Cc: ksummit@lists.linux.dev
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/cfb8bb96-e798-474d-bc6f-9cf610fe720f@lucifer.local/

--

Changes from v5:
 * Add more review tags
 * Add a blurb to the "special" asks bullet to mention that extra
   testing may be requested.
 * Reword the closing paragraph of "Out of Scope" section for clarity
 * Remove an "AI" and make small wording tweak (Jon)

Changes from v4:
 * Modest tweaking and rewording to strengthen language
 * Add a section to help alleviate concerns that the document would
   not enable maintainers to act forcefully enough in the face of
   high-volume low-quality contributions (aka. AI slop).
   This is very close to some text that Lorenzo posted. I just
   made some very minor wording tweaks and spelling fixes.
 * Note: v4 mistakenly had "v3" in the subject

Changes from v3:
 * Wording/formatting tweaks (Randy)

Changes from v2:
 * Mention testing (Shuah)
 * Remove "very", rename LLM => coding assistant (Dan)
 * More formatting sprucing up and minor typos (Miguel)
 * Make changelog and text less flashy (Christian)
 * Tone down critical=>helpful (Neil)

Changes from v1:
 * Rename to generated-content.rst and add to documentation index.
   (Jon)
 * Rework subject to align with the new filename
 * Replace commercial names with generic ones. (Jon)
 * Be consistent about punctuation at the end of bullets for whole
   sentences. (Miguel)
 * Formatting sprucing up and minor typos (Miguel)

This document was a collaborative effort from all the members of
the TAB. I just reformatted it into .rst and wrote the changelog.

Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
Message-ID: <20260119200418.89541-1-dave.hansen@linux.intel.com>
2026-01-20 14:51:22 -07:00
..
debugging - The 3 patch series "hung_task: extend blocking task stacktrace dump to 2025-05-31 19:12:53 -07:00
1.Intro.rst Doc: correct spelling and wording mistakes 2026-01-06 14:39:58 -07:00
2.Process.rst Doc: correct spelling and wording mistakes 2026-01-06 14:39:58 -07:00
3.Early-stage.rst
4.Coding.rst Doc: correct spelling and wording mistakes 2026-01-06 14:39:58 -07:00
5.Posting.rst docs: update the guidance for Link: tags 2025-09-15 17:22:38 -06:00
6.Followthrough.rst
7.AdvancedTopics.rst Doc: correct spelling and wording mistakes 2026-01-06 14:39:58 -07:00
8.Conclusion.rst
adding-syscalls.rst Documentation: Remove :manpage: from non-existing man pages 2026-01-16 11:19:06 -07:00
applying-patches.rst
backporting.rst docs: fix typos and whitespace in Documentation/process/backporting.rst 2024-11-12 13:22:16 -07:00
botching-up-ioctls.rst
changes.rst Documentation: Fix typos and grammatical errors 2026-01-16 11:13:45 -07:00
code-of-conduct-interpretation.rst Documentation/CoC: Spell out the TAB role in enforcement decisions 2025-03-12 16:31:48 -06:00
code-of-conduct.rst
coding-assistants.rst docs: add AI Coding Assistants documentation 2026-01-06 14:55:06 -07:00
coding-style.rst docs: Update documentation to avoid mentioning of kernel.h 2025-12-22 14:59:18 -07:00
contribution-maturity-model.rst
cve.rst
deprecated.rst
development-process.rst
email-clients.rst docs: process: email-client: add Thunderbird "Toggle Line Wrap" extension 2026-01-06 14:38:28 -07:00
embargoed-hardware-issues.rst Documentation: embargoed-hardware-issues.rst: Add myself for Power 2025-06-18 16:38:50 +02:00
generated-content.rst Documentation: Provide guidelines for tool-generated content 2026-01-20 14:51:22 -07:00
handling-regressions.rst docs: handling-regressions.rst: recommend using "Closes:" tags 2024-05-30 13:56:06 -06:00
howto.rst Documentation: fix links to mailing list services 2024-07-03 16:52:54 -06:00
index.rst Documentation: Provide guidelines for tool-generated content 2026-01-20 14:51:22 -07:00
kernel-docs.rst kernel-docs: Add book to process/kernel-docs.rst 2025-02-18 13:24:01 -07:00
kernel-driver-statement.rst
kernel-enforcement-statement.rst
license-rules.rst docs/licensing: Clarify wording about "GPL" and "Proprietary" 2024-11-22 10:44:25 -07:00
maintainer-handbooks.rst
maintainer-kvm-x86.rst
maintainer-netdev.rst docs: netdev: refine the clean-up patch examples 2025-08-18 17:39:32 -07:00
maintainer-pgp-guide.rst Documentation: Improve wording on requirements for a free Nitrokey 2025-12-22 15:30:51 -07:00
maintainer-soc-clean-dts.rst docs: process: maintainer-soc-clean-dts: linux-next is decisive 2025-02-26 13:15:57 -06:00
maintainer-soc.rst Documentation/process: maintainer-soc: Use "DTS" instead of "devicetree" 2025-09-01 11:50:47 +02:00
maintainer-tip.rst Align git commit ID abbreviation guidelines and checks 2024-12-30 11:40:45 -07:00
maintainers.rst
management-style.rst
programming-language.rst
researcher-guidelines.rst
security-bugs.rst Documentation: insist on the plain-text requirement for security reports 2025-12-22 15:32:03 -07:00
stable-api-nonsense.rst
stable-kernel-rules.rst
submit-checklist.rst docs/.../submit-checklist: Use Documentation/admin-guide/abi.rst for cross-ref of README 2025-03-12 16:41:56 -06:00
submitting-patches.rst docs: submitting-patches: suggest adding previous version links 2026-01-06 14:52:48 -07:00
volatile-considered-harmful.rst