Google Summer of Code (GSoC): AI Usage Policy for Jenkins Contributions

Jenkins GSoC

At Jenkins, we value authentic contributions, deep understanding, and code quality. While we recognize that AI tools (like ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, Gemini, Claude, etc.) are powerful aids, their misuse in open source can lead to incorrect code, licensing issues, and maintenance burdens. To ensure the quality of our project, we have established the following guidelines for using AI tools:

For Contributors (or Mentees)

✅ Accepted Use:

  • Research & Learning: Using AI to understand the codebase, explain complex functions, or research Jenkins APIs.

  • Refining Text: Using AI to check grammar, improve the clarity of documentation, or rephrase pull request descriptions (provided the facts are accurate).

  • Local Debugging: Asking AI to help explain a local error stack trace.

❌ Prohibited Use:

  • Code Generation: You may not copy-paste AI-generated code directly into a Pull Request. Code submissions must be manually written, understood, and verified by you.

  • Automated Issue Creation: You may not use AI to bulk-generate issues or "hallucinate" bugs that do not exist.

  • Low-Effort Responses: Do not use AI to generate generic comments or reviews on other people’s PRs.

  • PR-Description: Do not use AI to generate the PR description on your behalf.

⚠️ Enforcement:

Our maintainers review contributions for if they find the signs of AI-generated content :

  1. First Offense: If a maintainer detects AI-generated code, the contributor will receive a formal warning, and the PR may be closed.

  2. Second Offense: Continued disregard for this policy after a warning will result in a ban from contributing to the Jenkins organization.

Why This Policy Exists

  • Jenkins is a long-lived, complex ecosystem that relies on a deep understanding.

  • Reviews require contributors to explain and defend their changes.

  • Over-reliance on AI-generated code degrades maintainability and mentorship.

We want contributors to learn, grow, and engage, not outsource understanding.

In Doubt? Ask.

If you are unsure whether your use of AI is acceptable:

  • Be transparent with maintainers

  • Ask before submitting

  • Err on the side of writing and understanding the code yourself

We welcome contributors. We also expect authorship, intent, and responsibility.