And below is the first test of this scheme: Co-developed-by: Claude claude-opus-4-20250514 Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin <sashal@xxxxxxxxxx> --- Documentation/agents/index.rst | 3 ++- Documentation/agents/legal.rst | 42 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Documentation/agents/main.rst | 5 ++++ 3 files changed, 49 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) create mode 100644 Documentation/agents/legal.rst diff --git a/Documentation/agents/index.rst b/Documentation/agents/index.rst index 354af3f025e5..982602db3349 100644 --- a/Documentation/agents/index.rst +++ b/Documentation/agents/index.rst @@ -9,4 +9,5 @@ Agents main core - coding-style \ No newline at end of file + coding-style + legal \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/Documentation/agents/legal.rst b/Documentation/agents/legal.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..67e6b2cdff9d --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/agents/legal.rst @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 + +=============================== +Legal Requirements for Agents +=============================== + +This document outlines critical legal requirements that coding agents must follow when working with the Linux kernel codebase. + +Licensing Requirements +---------------------- + +**GPL-2.0 License** + The Linux kernel is licensed under GPL-2.0 only with a syscall exception. Coding agents MUST follow this licensing rule with no exceptions. Any code contributed must be compatible with this license. + +**SPDX License Identifiers** + All files must have proper SPDX license identifiers. For most kernel source files, this should be the first line of the file in the appropriate comment format: + + - For C source/header files: ``// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0`` + - For scripts: ``# SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0`` + - For documentation: ``.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0`` + +Signed-off-by Restriction +------------------------- + +Coding assistants **MUST NOT** add a ``Signed-off-by`` tag pointing to themselves. The ``Signed-off-by`` tag represents a legal certification by a human developer that they have the right to submit the code under the open source license. + +Only the human user running the coding assistant should add their ``Signed-off-by`` tag to commits. The agent's contribution is acknowledged through the ``Co-developed-by`` tag as described below. + +Agent Attribution Requirement +----------------------------- + +When creating commits, coding agents **MUST** identify themselves by including the following tag in the commit message:: + + Co-developed-by: $AGENT_NAME $AGENT_MODEL $AGENT_VERSION + +Examples: + +- ``Co-developed-by: Claude claude-3-opus-20240229`` +- ``Co-developed-by: GitHub-Copilot GPT-4 v1.0.0`` +- ``Co-developed-by: Cursor gpt-4-turbo-2024-04-09`` + +This transparency helps maintainers and reviewers understand that a coding agent was involved in the development process. diff --git a/Documentation/agents/main.rst b/Documentation/agents/main.rst index 8e0463794b76..9ef75978a2e6 100644 --- a/Documentation/agents/main.rst +++ b/Documentation/agents/main.rst @@ -15,3 +15,8 @@ Coding Style ------------ For coding style guidelines and rules, see :doc:`coding-style` + +Legal Requirements +------------------ + +For licensing, attribution, and legal requirements, see :doc:`legal` -- 2.39.5