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10 changes: 10 additions & 0 deletions CONTRIBUTING.md
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ works.
* [Code of Conduct](#code-of-conduct)
* [Issues](#issues)
* [Pull Requests](#pull-requests)
* [AI Use Policy and Guidelines](#ai-use-policy-and-guidelines)
* [Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1](#developers-certificate-of-origin-11)

## [Code of Conduct](./doc/contributing/code-of-conduct.md)
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -47,6 +48,15 @@ dependencies, and tools contained in the `nodejs/node` repository.
* [Reviewing Pull Requests](./doc/contributing/pull-requests.md#reviewing-pull-requests)
* [Notes](./doc/contributing/pull-requests.md#notes)

## [AI Use Policy and Guidelines](./doc/contributing/ai-guidelines.md)

Node.js expects contributors to understand and take full responsibility for
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this first sentence seems intentionally to be the same as the full policy document, which now has a suggested change. marking this here to resolve whether or not the language should continue syncing, if it should change

every change they propose. Pull requests consisting of AI-generated code the
contributor has not personally understood, tested, and verified will be closed
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without review.
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Comment on lines +54 to +56
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Suggested change
every change they propose. Pull requests consisting of AI-generated code the
contributor has not personally understood, tested, and verified will likely be closed
without review.
every change they propose. Pull requests containing AI-generated code the
contributor has not personally understood, tested, and verified will likely be closed
without review.


See [details on our AI use policy and guidelines](./doc/contributing/ai-guidelines.md).

## Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1

```text
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# AI use policy and guidelines

* [Core principle](#core-principle)
* [Using AI for code contributions](#using-ai-for-code-contributions)
* [Using AI for communication](#using-ai-for-communication)

## Core principle

Node.js expects contributors to understand and take full responsibility for
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every change they propose. The answer to "Why is X an improvement?" should
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never be "I'm not sure. The AI did it."

Pull requests that consist of AI-generated code the contributor has not
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Suggested change
Pull requests that consist of AI-generated code the contributor has not
Pull requests that contain AI-generated code the contributor has not

personally understood, tested, and verified waste collaborator time and
will be closed without review.
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## Using AI for code contributions

AI tools may assist contributors, but must not replace contributor judgment.
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Suggested change
AI tools may assist contributors, but must not replace contributor judgment.
AI tools may assist contributors, but must not replace human judgment.

When using AI as a coding assistant:
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* **Understand the codebase first.** Do not skip familiarizing yourself with
the relevant subsystem. LLMs frequently produce inaccurate descriptions of
Node.js internals — always verify against the actual source. When using an AI
tool, ask it to cite the exact source files/PRs/docs it’s relying on, and then
match the claim against that resource to verify if it holds up in the current
code.

* **Own every line you submit.** You are responsible for all code in your
pull request, regardless of how it was generated. Be prepared to explain
any change in detail during review.
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Suggested change
* **Own every line you submit.** You are responsible for all code in your
pull request, regardless of how it was generated. Be prepared to explain
any change in detail during review.
* **Own every line you submit.** You are responsible for all code in your
pull request, regardless of how it was generated. This includes ensuring
that AI-generated or AI-assisted contributions satisfy the project's
[Developer's Certificate of Origin][] and licensing requirements. Be
prepared to explain any change in detail during review.

(would need a DCO link added at the bottom of the page also)


* **Keep logical commits.** Structure commits coherently even when an LLM
generates multiple changes at once. Follow the existing
[commit message guidelines][].
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* **Test thoroughly.** AI-generated code must pass the full test suite and
any manually written tests relevant to the change. Existing Tests should not
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be removed or modified without human verification. Do not rely on the LLM
to assess correctness.
Comment on lines +57 to +60
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Some hallucination machines may write tests based on the implementation of a feature instead of considering the expected behavior of the feature.

Suggested change
* **Test thoroughly.** AI-generated code must pass the full test suite and
any manually written tests relevant to the change. Existing tests should not
be removed or modified without human verification. Do not rely on the LLM
to assess correctness.
* **Test thoroughly.** AI-generated code must pass the full test suite and
any manually written tests relevant to the change. Existing tests should not
be removed or modified without human verification. Do not rely on the LLM
to assess correctness. It is crucial to manually verify the correctness of
tests against the expected behavior of the feature being tested,
independently of the feature's implementation.

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@ChALkeR ChALkeR Apr 20, 2026

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Can we extract this and also apply to human-written code too? (but keep it here also)

I believe we have existing decade-old tests that should be subject to this

Mostly "increase coverage" PRs are highly subject to documenting bugs instead of fixing them (not just in Node.js, but overall)


* **Edit generated comments critically.** LLM-produced comments are often
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I would recommend adding an extra rule to not push "linter" changes that LLM usually does, it's pretty frequent at meteor, and dirty the commits and PR history

verbose or inaccurate. Remove comments that simply restate what the code
does; add comments only where the logic is non-obvious.
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## Using AI for communication

Node.js values concise, precise communication that respects collaborator time.
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Suggested change
Node.js values concise, precise communication that respects collaborator time.
Node.js values concise, precise communication that respects collaborator and contributor time.


* **Do not post AI-generated messages** in pull requests, issues, or the
project's communication channels.
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I'm less convinced this one is necessary. It's also difficult to enforce. These should follow the same rules as contributions... whatever is posted, you're responsible for, so use appropriate discretion.

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It's only difficult to enforce if it's low quality prose, though, in which case this item seems like it'd be needed.

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I think this also disenfranchises people that use an AI to help them write English, as it might not be their first language

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They shouldn't be doing that, though - they should just write in their native language and the reader can use AI and/or translation tools. I'd always much rather read broken English than a mistranslation (which are frequent).

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We can all have opinions about what others should or should not do and about what we personally prefer to see, but we should let people decide for themselves what tools they want to use and why.

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The point of a policy like this is to decide for them what tools they're allowed to use, even if that decision is "all of them". It's perfectly reasonable to tell people not to perform translations themselves, so that their intent is not lost (as it otherwise could be)

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@ChALkeR ChALkeR Apr 20, 2026

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It's only difficult to enforce if it's low quality prose, though, in which case this item seems like it'd be needed.

Creating incentives to breaking the rules in letter and assuming that those rules in letter would be broken is a bad policy (and means that the rule is formulated incorrectly)

It should be rephrased in a way that would allow high-effort/reviewed comments even if primarly generated by LLM, but disallow unreviewed/low-quality ones.

* **Verify accuracy** of any LLM-generated content before including it in a
PR description or comment.
* **Complete pull request templates fully** rather than replacing them with
LLM-generated summaries.
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Do we have a template? I thought those are for issues, not PRs.

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It's not possible to fulfil the instructions "Complete pull request templates fully" based on the contents of https://github.com/nodejs/node/blob/main/.github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md?plain=1 so it looks like this sentence needs to be removed.

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Suggested change
* **Verify accuracy** of any LLM-generated content before including it in a
PR description or comment.
* **Complete pull request templates fully** rather than replacing them with
LLM-generated summaries.
* **Verify accuracy** of any LLM-generated content before including it in a
PR description or comment.

* **Link to primary sources** — code, documentation, specifications — rather
than quoting LLM answers.
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Suggested change
* **Link to primary sources** — code, documentation, specifications — rather
than quoting LLM answers.
* **Link to primary sources** — code, documentation, specifications — rather
than quoting LLM answers or linking to LLM chats.

* Grammar and spell-check tools are acceptable when they improve clarity and
conciseness.

[commit message guidelines]: ./pull-requests.md#commit-message-guidelines
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