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AI Usage Policy

The Grimmory 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, Codex, Copilot, Cursor, etc.) 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, consider finding other ways to contribute — documentation, testing, discussion, and feedback are all genuinely valuable.

  • When contributing via pull requests, AI is a tool — not a substitute for understanding. All AI-assisted code must be fully tested and verified by you before submission. If you don't have enough familiarity with the affected area of the codebase to identify what could go wrong, ask questions first.

  • When contributing via issues and discussions, AI assistance is welcome but you must remain in the loop. Any AI-generated content must be reviewed and edited by you before submission. AI tends toward verbosity and noise — trim it, focus it, and make sure it reflects your actual intent.

  • 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.

  • Submissions that are clearly unreviewed AI output will be closed without further engagement. Repeated offences will result in being blocked from the project. We love to help people learn and grow — if that's your goal, slow down, ask questions, and we'll help you.

These rules apply only to outside contributions to Grimmory. Maintainers are exempt from these rules and may use AI tools at their discretion; they are accountable for the quality of the project and apply their own judgment accordingly.

There are Humans Here

Please remember that Grimmory is maintained by humans.

Every discussion, issue, and pull request is read and reviewed by humans (and sometimes machines, too). It is a boundary point at which people interact with each other and the work done. It is rude and disrespectful to approach this boundary with low-effort, unqualified work, since it puts the burden of validation on the maintainer.

Our Philosophy on AI

Parts of Grimmory have been written with AI assistance, and many maintainers embrace AI tools as a productive part of their workflow, in their own different and personal ways. As a project, we welcome AI as a tool.

Our reason for the strict AI policy is not due to an anti-AI stance, but instead due to the gap between what AI can produce and what contributors can confidently stand behind. It's not the tools that are the problem, but when they're used to leapfrog past understanding.

AI tooling has opened the door for more people to participate in software projects than ever before — and that's genuinely exciting.

But as Ian Malcolm put it in Jurassic Park: [they] were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.

The same applies here. The ability to produce something with AI doesn't automatically bring with it the understanding to judge whether that something is correct, safe, or right for the codebase it's entering.

That judgment — of side effects, edge cases, architectural fit, conventions — still belongs to a human who knows what they're looking at. We're here to help you become that human, if you want to be.

We include this section to be transparent about the project's usage of AI for people who may disagree with it, and to address the misconception that this policy is anti-AI in nature.

This policy is adapted from the Ghostty AI Usage Policy, with thanks to the Ghostty project.