From 8349e4c91c706257ca5f6a9fb66a5f26f5ed3294 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Even Rouault Date: Sat, 27 Jun 2026 20:24:24 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] Add a AI/LLM tool policy page --- en/community/ai_tool_policy.txt | 99 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ en/community/index.txt | 12 +++- 2 files changed, 109 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) create mode 100644 en/community/ai_tool_policy.txt diff --git a/en/community/ai_tool_policy.txt b/en/community/ai_tool_policy.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..92acb797d4b --- /dev/null +++ b/en/community/ai_tool_policy.txt @@ -0,0 +1,99 @@ +.. _ai_tool_policy: + +***************************************************************************** +AI/LLM tool policy +***************************************************************************** + +Rationale +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +LLMs are changing software development in many ways. What was once scarce, the +time and expertise to *write* software, is now plentiful. This scarcity was a +choke point that limited consumption of related resources in open source +projects. With that scarcity effectively gone in 2026, the dynamics and economics +of a project like MapServer are being disrupted. + +A project like MapServer is not simply code. It is also design, review, coordinated +refactoring, deprecation scheduling, coordinated communication, distribution, +and historical outlook. The plentiful convenience of code writing LLMs do not +effectively replace the human maintainers, architects, and documenters doing +the jobs that provide much of the value MapServer users actually derive. If they +did, LLM contributors would not need to bother to upstream activity to the +project at all. + +With the explosion of LLM usage in software development, the constrained +resource is now "maintenance". It is the time to review your contribution, the +time to make it concise, the time to refactor it in to a larger system, and the +time to protect the larger software system from disruption, breakage, and +performance degradation. Indiscriminate usage of LLMs in open source projects +*consume* maintenance, and the MapServer LLM tool policy attempts to conserve that +resource. + +Additionally, legal systems across the world (including US and EU) have not +definitely determined whether LLM outputs are derived works of training data or +if LLM-written code can even be copyrighted by a human. This is despite it +being latently extracted and originated from open source software in the first +place. + +Policy +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Contributors can make **limited use** of LLMs for contributions in MapServer, +subject to details mentioned below: + + * **Human contributors must be the primary author(s) of MapServer contributions** + + * All contributions including code, ticket comments, and commit messages + should be fully understood by the author(s) submitting them to the + project. + + * Submission of `vibe-coded `__ contributions is *banned*. + + * LLMs may only be used as an improved auto-completion mechanism, or + for repeated tasks (mechanical refactoring) that could potentially be + completed with a deterministic algorithm. + + * Human-coordinated or uncoordinated (OpenClaw, etc) use of agents for + submission of contributions to the MapServer repository is *banned*. + + * *Any* LLM usage must be indicated by ticket label, comment, or commit + message indication and account for what was written by whom/what. + + * The contributing human author is ultimately responsible for every line of + code, comment, or mailing list interaction they initiate, and all of it + is subject to the project's code of conduct. + + * The typical high verbosity of LLM code and text is actively discouraged. + More code is more code to maintain. High verbosity contribution (tickets, + code, messages, etc) will be seen as indication of LLM-generated content + when not labeled otherwise and may be ignored, closed, left unmerged, or + removed at maintainers' discretion. + + +Violations +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +If a maintainer judges that a contribution does not comply with this policy, +they should paste the following response to request changes: + +.. code-block:: text + + This PR does not appear to comply with our policy on tool-generated content, + and requires additional justification for why it is valuable enough to the + project for us to review it. Please see our developer policy on + AI-generated contributions: + https://gdal.org/community/ai_tool_policy.html + +If a contributor fails to rectify their contribution to comply with the policy, +maintainers may lock the conversation and/or close the pull request/issue/RFC. +In case of repeated violations of our policy, the MapServer project reserves itself +the right to temporarily or permanently ban the infringing person/account. + +Mitigation +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +MapServer donations are one way your organization can help buffer the cost and +disruption of LLMs in projects such as MapServer. The constrained resource is +maintenance, not adding more code/capability. Donations financially support +operation of MapServer as an ongoing open source software project, and without +it, much of the activity MapServer users take for granted would simply not happen. diff --git a/en/community/index.txt b/en/community/index.txt index 430dd596fc4..6e59e968e7a 100644 --- a/en/community/index.txt +++ b/en/community/index.txt @@ -19,7 +19,15 @@ Matrix / IRC :maxdepth: 2 matrix-irc - + +AI/LLM tool policy +------------------ + +.. toctree:: + :maxdepth: 2 + + ai_tool_policy + MapServer Service Providers --------------------------- @@ -42,4 +50,4 @@ Contributors .. toctree:: :maxdepth: 2 - contributors \ No newline at end of file + contributors