The BeeWare project neither encourages nor prohibits the use of AI tools when making contributions. However, if you do use an AI tool to support your work processes, this policy describes the conditions governing that tool use.
The one paragraph summary of this policy: The human contributor is the sole party responsible for any contribution. That human is responsible for understanding all contributions they make, declaring the usage any tools used, and ensuring compliance with any project guidelines and processes.
BeeWare is a complex project. It involves code that needs to run on a range of operating systems and hardware configurations. It has interfaces that must maintain a robust user experience for developers with a wide range of levels of experience. It is important that BeeWare software has high standard of quality and maintainability. There are a small number of people on the BeeWare core team, and we seek to use our time and resources effectively.
Generative AI and Large Language Models (as seen in tools such as ChatGPT, Codex, Claude, and Copilot) have become an unavoidable detail of modern software development. While we recognize that some people find these tools to be useful aids for software development, they also make it very easy to generate contributions without the submitter fully understanding how the code works, or the consequences of specific implementation choices. It is also possible for these tools to operate autonomously, without any human involvement or oversight.
The overhead associated with managing contributions that have been generated by autonomous or semi-autonomous AI tools, with little or no effort on the part of the human contributor, is not an effective use of the core team's limited time and resources.
When this document refers to "AI tools", it encompasses any tool that is able to generate significant content, or can operate autonomously or semi-autonomously, based on limited input from a human. It does not matter what term or terms the tool uses to describe itself. It is the existence of autonomous or semi-autonomous behavior in the tool that triggers the requirements of this policy, not the specific name of the tool.
If you submit a pull request that includes code, documentation, or comments that has been generated by an AI tool:
- You must fully understand every line of code in the submission.
- You must be able to fully explain your implementation during the review process.
"The AI generated it" is never an acceptable answer to a reviewer's question. If a maintainer suspects you do not understand your PR, it will be closed immediately.
If you use an AI tool to assist with the review of a pull request:
- You must fully understand the content that has been reviewed.
- You must be able to justify your review comments if they are questioned.
"The AI said this was a problem" is never an acceptable review response.
Copy-and-pasting content to and from a chatbot during the process of code review is not acceptable, unless this is being used for translation to and from English.
If you allow an autonomous agent to post an issue, pull request or code review on your behalf, you are responsible for the content that is posted. If the content generated by the autonomous agent fails to follow BeeWare's documented contribution processes, you are responsible for that failure.
Autonomous agents may be used to initiate an action (e.g., submit a pull request, or provide a code review), but should not be empowered to engage in ongoing "conversations" with other participants. Humans will take time to review code, and we expect a human contributor to make the same commitment in handling their submissions. Discussions on the BeeWare repositories should be between humans.
If AI tools were used to generate a significant portion of your contribution (i.e. beyond simple autocomplete), we require you to disclose the tools used in the pull request description.
Transparency helps maintainers calibrate their review focus. Please add a trailer to your pull request message in the following format:
Assisted-by: Name of AI
Examples:
Assisted-by: ChatGPT 5.2
Assisted-by: Claude Opus 4.5
Assisted-by: Google Gemini 3
A template for this is included in the default BeeWare pull request template. The template also includes a checkbox that requires you to confirm that you have disclosed the use of any autonomous coding tools. This checkbox must be checked if you used an AI tool to produce your contribution.
BeeWare is a project written by humans with interfaces designed by humans - for everyone. It is not a testing ground for tool experimentation.
We do not accept pull requests or issues that result from running an autonomous tool over the code base to find improvements without prior context or alignment with the project.
The expectations of contributions generated by AI tools are no different to those generated by humans. Work generated using autonomous coding tools must follow the same contribution guidelines and procedures that a human contributor is expected to follow. Pull request and issue templates must be filled out as provided, not replaced with generated content.
By submitting a contribution to BeeWare, you represent and warrant that:
- You have the legal right to submit the contribution under the project's licence.
- The contribution does not violate the intellectual property rights of any third party.
- If autonomous coding tools were used, the resulting code does not violate the terms of service of the tool provider, and does not include "regurgitated" code from libraries with licenses that are incompatible with the repository you’re submitting it to.
If you cannot guarantee the provenance and legal safety of code you contribute - regardless of whether it is autonomously generated - do not submit it.
The following are strictly prohibited, and will result in immediate closure of a pull request or issue, and a report being made under our Code of Conduct:
- Ignoring code contribution procedures: Using AI tools to write issues or pull request descriptions that ignore or overwrite default project templates.
- Unvetted boilerplate: Submitting verbose autonomously-generated summaries in place of a succinct explanation of the contribution. If you don't understand what the code does well enough to explain it in your own words, don't submit the PR.
- Conflicts with reality: For example, submitting pull requests that resolve issues that don't exist, or code that uses APIs that don't exist. Contributions must be grounded in reality.
BeeWare project maintainers reserve the right to close any issue or pull request that appears to be a low-effort contribution from an AI tool, without providing a detailed technical critique. We are a small team supporting a large project. Our time is best spent working with contributors who understand the project's technical requirements and are interested in working with the maintainers to advance the project.
Any such action will be reported to the BeeWare Code of Conduct Response Team. Repeated violations may result in a ban from BeeWare Project spaces.
This policy is based on the Mastodon AI Contribution Policy. That policy was based on the the CloudNativePG AI Contribution Policy, which was inspired by the Ghostty AI Usage Policy and the Linux Foundation's Generative AI Policy.