+1 to what Joanna has said below. #1 is unnecessary burden unless there is clear use for that, I don't know of one either. #2 must be the case that projects can override (or make additions) the general guidance since that's likely where we will land for practical reasons.

Get Outlook for iOShttps://aka.ms/o0ukef ________________________________ From: Joanna Farley Joanna.Farley@arm.com Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2025 6:02:52 AM To: Dan Handley Dan.Handley@arm.com; Soby Mathew Soby.Mathew@arm.com; Sandrine Bailleux Sandrine.Afsa@arm.com; Manish Pandey2 Manish.Pandey2@arm.com; Olivier Deprez Olivier.Deprez@arm.com; Bipin Ravi Bipin.Ravi@arm.com; Julius Werner jwerner@google.com; Varun Wadekar vwadekar@nvidia.com; Raghu Krishnamurthy raghupathyk@nvidia.com; yann.gautier@st.com yann.gautier@st.com; Manish Badarkhe Manish.Badarkhe@arm.com; David Brown (david.brown@linaro.org) david.brown@linaro.org; Ermel, Dominik dominik.ermel@nordicsemi.no; jamie.mccrae@nordicsemi.no jamie.mccrae@nordicsemi.no; Anton Komlev Anton.Komlev@arm.com; Antonio De Angelis Antonio.DeAngelis@arm.com; Alexei Fedorov Alexei.Fedorov@arm.com; Javier Almansa Sobrino Javier.AlmansaSobrino@arm.com; Arunachalam Ganapathy Arunachalam.Ganapathy@arm.com; Jens Wiklander jens.wiklander@linaro.org; jerome.forissier@linaro.org jerome.forissier@linaro.org; etienne.carriere@foss.st.com etienne.carriere@foss.st.com; Gilles Peskine Gilles.Peskine@arm.com; Janos Follath Janos.Follath@arm.com; Manuel Pegourie-Gonnard Manuel.Pegourie-Gonnard@arm.com; Ronald Cron Ronald.Cron@arm.com; Joao Alves Joao.Alves@arm.com; Madhukar Pappireddy Madhukar.Pappireddy@arm.com; Gyorgy Szing Gyorgy.Szing@arm.com Cc: tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.org tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.org Subject: Re: Feedback requested on TrustedFirmware.org "Guidance on AI-assisted contributions"

External email: Use caution opening links or attachments

Hi Dan,

I like the proposal as written.

On Eric’s modifications my thoughts are:

1) I also think this might be onerous to generate. The DCO is still in place and it’s the submitter using the AI tool that needs to ensure what is submitted meets the project licence and other guidance. I think that should be enough.

2) I think its important to allow projects to have the ability to have project specific rules. When I read the proposed general guidance I was thinking any project guidance would be in addition to the general guidance.

Joanna

From: Dan Handley Dan.Handley@arm.com Date: Thursday, 31 July 2025 at 17:25 To: Soby Mathew Soby.Mathew@arm.com, Sandrine Bailleux Sandrine.Afsa@arm.com, Manish Pandey2 Manish.Pandey2@arm.com, Olivier Deprez Olivier.Deprez@arm.com, Bipin Ravi Bipin.Ravi@arm.com, Joanna Farley Joanna.Farley@arm.com, Julius Werner jwerner@google.com, Varun Wadekar vwadekar@nvidia.com, Raghu Krishnamurthy raghupathyk@nvidia.com, yann.gautier@st.com yann.gautier@st.com, Manish Badarkhe Manish.Badarkhe@arm.com, David Brown (david.brown@linaro.org) david.brown@linaro.org, Ermel, Dominik dominik.ermel@nordicsemi.no, jamie.mccrae@nordicsemi.no jamie.mccrae@nordicsemi.no, Anton Komlev Anton.Komlev@arm.com, Antonio De Angelis Antonio.DeAngelis@arm.com, Alexei Fedorov Alexei.Fedorov@arm.com, Javier Almansa Sobrino Javier.AlmansaSobrino@arm.com, Arunachalam Ganapathy Arunachalam.Ganapathy@arm.com, Jens Wiklander jens.wiklander@linaro.org, jerome.forissier@linaro.org jerome.forissier@linaro.org, etienne.carriere@foss.st.com etienne.carriere@foss.st.com, Gilles Peskine Gilles.Peskine@arm.com, Janos Follath Janos.Follath@arm.com, Manuel Pegourie-Gonnard Manuel.Pegourie-Gonnard@arm.com, Ronald Cron Ronald.Cron@arm.com, Joao Alves Joao.Alves@arm.com, Madhukar Pappireddy Madhukar.Pappireddy@arm.com, Gyorgy Szing Gyorgy.Szing@arm.com Cc: tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.org tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.org Subject: Feedback requested on TrustedFirmware.org "Guidance on AI-assisted contributions"

Hi all

I’ve sent this to what I hope is a representative subset of TrustedFirmware.org project maintainers. Feel free to forward to others you think should be included.

I’m writing to gather maintainer feedback on a proposal for TrustedFirmware.org to have a policy on the use of AI-assistants in code contributions. Several other open-source organizations already have their own policies. Attached is the current draft of that policy, which is based on the Linux Foundation and Apache Software Foundation guidance. This has been discussed at the TF.org board and more recently, the TSC (see minutes herehttps://lists.trustedfirmware.org/archives/list/tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.org/thread/DIDKNFC6NCMVGHT7SOYKHB56R2XTNCUO/). Eric Finco @ ST had 2 pieces of feedback to this, the 2nd of which prompted me to seek this wider input. To summarize that feedback:

1. Eric would like all contributions that use AI assistants to explicitly attribute the tool(s) used in the contribution for transparency reasons. The counter feedback is that this might be onerous to generate (especially if a tool has a complex backend) and there is no clear use for that information. 2. Eric would like the policy to apply to all TrustedFirmware.org projects, rather allowing projects to develop their own project-specific guidance (as per the current draft).

Some of this might require more interaction discussion. My plan was to invite you all to a future TSC meeting (perhaps in September) to discuss further. I’m happy to take feedback on the policy, Eric’s feedback or the process to handle this. Feel free to reply to this email (to all or just to me), or just wait for that TSC meeting.

Best regards

Dan.

Hello again

After looking at the below proposal again, we have a hit a snag. The Linux policy referred to below (like the rest of the Linux source) is covered by the GPL-2.0 license, which prevents us copying parts of this policy to TF.org documentation without affecting the licensing of the TF.org website. The potentially valuable part would be the defined format, in case any future analysis tools were created to parse such tags. I'm not sure there's much value in changing the tag name alone.

Therefore, unless anyone has any solution suggestions, I'm going to withdraw my proposal to change the TF.org policy. If you'd like to discuss this more at the next TSC, let me know.

Regards

Dan.

From: Dan Handley via TSC tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.org Date: Thursday, 23 April 2026 at 15:59 To: Soby Mathew Soby.Mathew@arm.com; Sandrine Bailleux Sandrine.Afsa@arm.com; Manish Pandey2 Manish.Pandey2@arm.com; Olivier Deprez Olivier.Deprez@arm.com; Bipin Ravi Bipin.Ravi@arm.com; Joanna Farley Joanna.Farley@arm.com; Julius Werner jwerner@google.com; Varun Wadekar vwadekar@nvidia.com; Raghu Krishnamurthy raghupathyk@nvidia.com; yann.gautier@st.com yann.gautier@st.com; Manish Badarkhe Manish.Badarkhe@arm.com; David Brown (david.brown@linaro.org) david.brown@linaro.org; Ermel, Dominik dominik.ermel@nordicsemi.no; jamie.mccrae@nordicsemi.no jamie.mccrae@nordicsemi.no; Anton Komlev Anton.Komlev@arm.com; Antonio De Angelis Antonio.DeAngelis@arm.com; Alexei Fedorov Alexei.Fedorov@arm.com; Javier Almansa Sobrino Javier.AlmansaSobrino@arm.com; Arunachalam Ganapathy Arunachalam.Ganapathy@arm.com; Jens Wiklander jens.wiklander@linaro.org; jerome.forissier@linaro.org jerome.forissier@linaro.org; etienne.carriere@foss.st.com etienne.carriere@foss.st.com; Gilles Peskine Gilles.Peskine@arm.com; Janos Follath Janos.Follath@arm.com; Manuel Pegourie-Gonnard Manuel.Pegourie-Gonnard@arm.com; Ronald Cron Ronald.Cron@arm.com; Madhukar Pappireddy Madhukar.Pappireddy@arm.com; Gyorgy Szing Gyorgy.Szing@arm.com Cc: tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.org tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.org Subject: [TF-TSC] Re: Feedback requested on TrustedFirmware.org "Guidance on AI-assisted contributions"

Hi TSC and TF.org maintainers

This is an update on the TF.org guidance for AI-assisted contributions. The current guidance is published here: https://www.trustedfirmware.org/aipolicy/. This includes a recommendation to attribute such contributions using a "Co-developed-by:" tag.

Recently the Linux project added its own guidance: https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/Documentation/process/coding-a.... This is largely aligned with the TF.org guidance but recommends a different attribution tag name and format:

"Contributions should include an Assisted-by tag in the following format:

Assisted-by: AGENT_NAME:MODEL_VERSION [TOOL1] [TOOL2]"

This was discussed at the last TSC meeting: https://lists.trustedfirmware.org/archives/list/tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.or...

Given that Co-developed-by: is not yet widely used for AI-assisted contributions at TF.org (see minutes for an exception) or the wider open-source ecosystem, and Linux's decision that this tag is not suitable for AI-assisted contributions, we (the TSC) propose that we align the TF.org guidance with the Linux guidance.

If you have any objection to this, please reply to this email. If we have no objections, we will proceed with the change.

Thank you and regards

Dan.

From: Dan Handley Dan.Handley@arm.com Date: Thursday, 31 July 2025 at 17:24 To: Soby Mathew Soby.Mathew@arm.com; Sandrine Bailleux Sandrine.Afsa@arm.com; Manish Pandey2 Manish.Pandey2@arm.com; Olivier Deprez Olivier.Deprez@arm.com; Bipin Ravi Bipin.Ravi@arm.com; Joanna Farley Joanna.Farley@arm.com; Julius Werner jwerner@google.com; Varun Wadekar vwadekar@nvidia.com; Raghu Krishnamurthy raghupathyk@nvidia.com; yann.gautier@st.com yann.gautier@st.com; Manish Badarkhe Manish.Badarkhe@arm.com; David Brown (david.brown@linaro.org) david.brown@linaro.org; Ermel, Dominik dominik.ermel@nordicsemi.no; jamie.mccrae@nordicsemi.no jamie.mccrae@nordicsemi.no; Anton Komlev Anton.Komlev@arm.com; Antonio De Angelis Antonio.DeAngelis@arm.com; Alexei Fedorov Alexei.Fedorov@arm.com; Javier Almansa Sobrino Javier.AlmansaSobrino@arm.com; Arunachalam Ganapathy Arunachalam.Ganapathy@arm.com; Jens Wiklander jens.wiklander@linaro.org; jerome.forissier@linaro.org jerome.forissier@linaro.org; etienne.carriere@foss.st.com etienne.carriere@foss.st.com; Gilles Peskine Gilles.Peskine@arm.com; Janos Follath Janos.Follath@arm.com; Manuel Pegourie-Gonnard Manuel.Pegourie-Gonnard@arm.com; Ronald Cron Ronald.Cron@arm.com; Joao Alves Joao.Alves@arm.com; Madhukar Pappireddy Madhukar.Pappireddy@arm.com; Gyorgy Szing Gyorgy.Szing@arm.com Cc: tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.org tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.org Subject: Feedback requested on TrustedFirmware.org "Guidance on AI-assisted contributions"

Hi all

I’ve sent this to what I hope is a representative subset of TrustedFirmware.org project maintainers. Feel free to forward to others you think should be included.

I’m writing to gather maintainer feedback on a proposal for TrustedFirmware.org to have a policy on the use of AI-assistants in code contributions. Several other open-source organizations already have their own policies. Attached is the current draft of that policy, which is based on the Linux Foundation and Apache Software Foundation guidance. This has been discussed at the TF.org board and more recently, the TSC (see minutes herehttps://lists.trustedfirmware.org/archives/list/tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.org/thread/DIDKNFC6NCMVGHT7SOYKHB56R2XTNCUO/). Eric Finco @ ST had 2 pieces of feedback to this, the 2nd of which prompted me to seek this wider input. To summarize that feedback:

1. Eric would like all contributions that use AI assistants to explicitly attribute the tool(s) used in the contribution for transparency reasons. The counter feedback is that this might be onerous to generate (especially if a tool has a complex backend) and there is no clear use for that information. 2. Eric would like the policy to apply to all TrustedFirmware.org projects, rather allowing projects to develop their own project-specific guidance (as per the current draft).

Some of this might require more interaction discussion. My plan was to invite you all to a future TSC meeting (perhaps in September) to discuss further. I’m happy to take feedback on the policy, Eric’s feedback or the process to handle this. Feel free to reply to this email (to all or just to me), or just wait for that TSC meeting.

Best regards

Dan.

The FSF position has generally been that documentation does not create an aggregate work.

Do you have a reference for this FSF position? If there's something off-the-shelf we can use that may work but I'm not sure there's enough motivation (from Arm at least) to obtain legal advice or seek Linux licensing changes.

Cheers

Dan.

From: David Brown david.brown@linaro.org Date: Tuesday, 2 June 2026 at 16:53 To: Dan Handley Dan.Handley@arm.com Cc: Soby Mathew Soby.Mathew@arm.com; Sandrine Bailleux Sandrine.Afsa@arm.com; Manish Pandey2 Manish.Pandey2@arm.com; Olivier Deprez Olivier.Deprez@arm.com; Bipin Ravi Bipin.Ravi@arm.com; Joanna Farley Joanna.Farley@arm.com; Julius Werner jwerner@google.com; Varun Wadekar vwadekar@nvidia.com; Raghu Krishnamurthy raghupathyk@nvidia.com; yann.gautier@st.com yann.gautier@st.com; Manish Badarkhe Manish.Badarkhe@arm.com; Ermel, Dominik dominik.ermel@nordicsemi.no; jamie.mccrae@nordicsemi.no jamie.mccrae@nordicsemi.no; Anton Komlev Anton.Komlev@arm.com; Antonio De Angelis Antonio.DeAngelis@arm.com; Alexei Fedorov Alexei.Fedorov@arm.com; Javier Almansa Sobrino Javier.AlmansaSobrino@arm.com; Arunachalam Ganapathy Arunachalam.Ganapathy@arm.com; Jens Wiklander jens.wiklander@linaro.org; jerome.forissier@linaro.org jerome.forissier@linaro.org; etienne.carriere@foss.st.com etienne.carriere@foss.st.com; Gilles Peskine Gilles.Peskine@arm.com; Janos Follath Janos.Follath@arm.com; Manuel Pegourie-Gonnard Manuel.Pegourie-Gonnard@arm.com; Ronald Cron Ronald.Cron@arm.com; Madhukar Pappireddy Madhukar.Pappireddy@arm.com; Gyorgy Szing Gyorgy.Szing@arm.com; tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.org tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.org Subject: Re: Feedback requested on TrustedFirmware.org "Guidance on AI-assisted contributions"

which prevents us copying parts of this policy to TF.org documentation without affecting the licensing of the TF.org website.

This isn't really true. The GPL "infectious" nature applies to code that is triggered by a distribution of a combined/derivative work. The FSF position has generally been that documentation does not create an aggregate work.

Another option is to just ask Sasha (and any other authors) if adding an additional license to the file would be permissible, even explaining our use case.

David

On Tue, Jun 2, 2026 at 3:25 AM Dan Handley <Dan.Handley@arm.commailto:Dan.Handley@arm.com> wrote: Hello again

After looking at the below proposal again, we have a hit a snag. The Linux policy referred to below (like the rest of the Linux source) is covered by the GPL-2.0 license, which prevents us copying parts of this policy to TF.org documentation without affecting the licensing of the TF.org website. The potentially valuable part would be the defined format, in case any future analysis tools were created to parse such tags. I'm not sure there's much value in changing the tag name alone.

Therefore, unless anyone has any solution suggestions, I'm going to withdraw my proposal to change the TF.org policy. If you'd like to discuss this more at the next TSC, let me know.

Regards

Dan.

From: Dan Handley via TSC <tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.orgmailto:tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.org> Date: Thursday, 23 April 2026 at 15:59 To: Soby Mathew <Soby.Mathew@arm.commailto:Soby.Mathew@arm.com>; Sandrine Bailleux <Sandrine.Afsa@arm.commailto:Sandrine.Afsa@arm.com>; Manish Pandey2 <Manish.Pandey2@arm.commailto:Manish.Pandey2@arm.com>; Olivier Deprez <Olivier.Deprez@arm.commailto:Olivier.Deprez@arm.com>; Bipin Ravi <Bipin.Ravi@arm.commailto:Bipin.Ravi@arm.com>; Joanna Farley <Joanna.Farley@arm.commailto:Joanna.Farley@arm.com>; Julius Werner <jwerner@google.commailto:jwerner@google.com>; Varun Wadekar <vwadekar@nvidia.commailto:vwadekar@nvidia.com>; Raghu Krishnamurthy <raghupathyk@nvidia.commailto:raghupathyk@nvidia.com>; yann.gautier@st.commailto:yann.gautier@st.com <yann.gautier@st.commailto:yann.gautier@st.com>; Manish Badarkhe <Manish.Badarkhe@arm.commailto:Manish.Badarkhe@arm.com>; David Brown (david.brown@linaro.orgmailto:david.brown@linaro.org) <david.brown@linaro.orgmailto:david.brown@linaro.org>; Ermel, Dominik <dominik.ermel@nordicsemi.nomailto:dominik.ermel@nordicsemi.no>; jamie.mccrae@nordicsemi.nomailto:jamie.mccrae@nordicsemi.no <jamie.mccrae@nordicsemi.nomailto:jamie.mccrae@nordicsemi.no>; Anton Komlev <Anton.Komlev@arm.commailto:Anton.Komlev@arm.com>; Antonio De Angelis <Antonio.DeAngelis@arm.commailto:Antonio.DeAngelis@arm.com>; Alexei Fedorov <Alexei.Fedorov@arm.commailto:Alexei.Fedorov@arm.com>; Javier Almansa Sobrino <Javier.AlmansaSobrino@arm.commailto:Javier.AlmansaSobrino@arm.com>; Arunachalam Ganapathy <Arunachalam.Ganapathy@arm.commailto:Arunachalam.Ganapathy@arm.com>; Jens Wiklander <jens.wiklander@linaro.orgmailto:jens.wiklander@linaro.org>; jerome.forissier@linaro.orgmailto:jerome.forissier@linaro.org <jerome.forissier@linaro.orgmailto:jerome.forissier@linaro.org>; etienne.carriere@foss.st.commailto:etienne.carriere@foss.st.com <etienne.carriere@foss.st.commailto:etienne.carriere@foss.st.com>; Gilles Peskine <Gilles.Peskine@arm.commailto:Gilles.Peskine@arm.com>; Janos Follath <Janos.Follath@arm.commailto:Janos.Follath@arm.com>; Manuel Pegourie-Gonnard <Manuel.Pegourie-Gonnard@arm.commailto:Manuel.Pegourie-Gonnard@arm.com>; Ronald Cron <Ronald.Cron@arm.commailto:Ronald.Cron@arm.com>; Madhukar Pappireddy <Madhukar.Pappireddy@arm.commailto:Madhukar.Pappireddy@arm.com>; Gyorgy Szing <Gyorgy.Szing@arm.commailto:Gyorgy.Szing@arm.com> Cc: tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.orgmailto:tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.org <tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.orgmailto:tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.org> Subject: [TF-TSC] Re: Feedback requested on TrustedFirmware.org "Guidance on AI-assisted contributions"

Hi TSC and TF.org maintainers

This is an update on the TF.org guidance for AI-assisted contributions. The current guidance is published here: https://www.trustedfirmware.org/aipolicy/. This includes a recommendation to attribute such contributions using a "Co-developed-by:" tag.

Recently the Linux project added its own guidance: https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/Documentation/process/coding-a.... This is largely aligned with the TF.org guidance but recommends a different attribution tag name and format:

"Contributions should include an Assisted-by tag in the following format:

Assisted-by: AGENT_NAME:MODEL_VERSION [TOOL1] [TOOL2]"

This was discussed at the last TSC meeting: https://lists.trustedfirmware.org/archives/list/tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.or...

Given that Co-developed-by: is not yet widely used for AI-assisted contributions at TF.org (see minutes for an exception) or the wider open-source ecosystem, and Linux's decision that this tag is not suitable for AI-assisted contributions, we (the TSC) propose that we align the TF.org guidance with the Linux guidance.

If you have any objection to this, please reply to this email. If we have no objections, we will proceed with the change.

Thank you and regards

Dan.

From: Dan Handley <Dan.Handley@arm.commailto:Dan.Handley@arm.com> Date: Thursday, 31 July 2025 at 17:24 To: Soby Mathew <Soby.Mathew@arm.commailto:Soby.Mathew@arm.com>; Sandrine Bailleux <Sandrine.Afsa@arm.commailto:Sandrine.Afsa@arm.com>; Manish Pandey2 <Manish.Pandey2@arm.commailto:Manish.Pandey2@arm.com>; Olivier Deprez <Olivier.Deprez@arm.commailto:Olivier.Deprez@arm.com>; Bipin Ravi <Bipin.Ravi@arm.commailto:Bipin.Ravi@arm.com>; Joanna Farley <Joanna.Farley@arm.commailto:Joanna.Farley@arm.com>; Julius Werner <jwerner@google.commailto:jwerner@google.com>; Varun Wadekar <vwadekar@nvidia.commailto:vwadekar@nvidia.com>; Raghu Krishnamurthy <raghupathyk@nvidia.commailto:raghupathyk@nvidia.com>; yann.gautier@st.commailto:yann.gautier@st.com <yann.gautier@st.commailto:yann.gautier@st.com>; Manish Badarkhe <Manish.Badarkhe@arm.commailto:Manish.Badarkhe@arm.com>; David Brown (david.brown@linaro.orgmailto:david.brown@linaro.org) <david.brown@linaro.orgmailto:david.brown@linaro.org>; Ermel, Dominik <dominik.ermel@nordicsemi.nomailto:dominik.ermel@nordicsemi.no>; jamie.mccrae@nordicsemi.nomailto:jamie.mccrae@nordicsemi.no <jamie.mccrae@nordicsemi.nomailto:jamie.mccrae@nordicsemi.no>; Anton Komlev <Anton.Komlev@arm.commailto:Anton.Komlev@arm.com>; Antonio De Angelis <Antonio.DeAngelis@arm.commailto:Antonio.DeAngelis@arm.com>; Alexei Fedorov <Alexei.Fedorov@arm.commailto:Alexei.Fedorov@arm.com>; Javier Almansa Sobrino <Javier.AlmansaSobrino@arm.commailto:Javier.AlmansaSobrino@arm.com>; Arunachalam Ganapathy <Arunachalam.Ganapathy@arm.commailto:Arunachalam.Ganapathy@arm.com>; Jens Wiklander <jens.wiklander@linaro.orgmailto:jens.wiklander@linaro.org>; jerome.forissier@linaro.orgmailto:jerome.forissier@linaro.org <jerome.forissier@linaro.orgmailto:jerome.forissier@linaro.org>; etienne.carriere@foss.st.commailto:etienne.carriere@foss.st.com <etienne.carriere@foss.st.commailto:etienne.carriere@foss.st.com>; Gilles Peskine <Gilles.Peskine@arm.commailto:Gilles.Peskine@arm.com>; Janos Follath <Janos.Follath@arm.commailto:Janos.Follath@arm.com>; Manuel Pegourie-Gonnard <Manuel.Pegourie-Gonnard@arm.commailto:Manuel.Pegourie-Gonnard@arm.com>; Ronald Cron <Ronald.Cron@arm.commailto:Ronald.Cron@arm.com>; Joao Alves <Joao.Alves@arm.commailto:Joao.Alves@arm.com>; Madhukar Pappireddy <Madhukar.Pappireddy@arm.commailto:Madhukar.Pappireddy@arm.com>; Gyorgy Szing <Gyorgy.Szing@arm.commailto:Gyorgy.Szing@arm.com> Cc: tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.orgmailto:tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.org <tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.orgmailto:tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.org> Subject: Feedback requested on TrustedFirmware.org "Guidance on AI-assisted contributions"

Hi all

I’ve sent this to what I hope is a representative subset of TrustedFirmware.org project maintainers. Feel free to forward to others you think should be included.

I’m writing to gather maintainer feedback on a proposal for TrustedFirmware.org to have a policy on the use of AI-assistants in code contributions. Several other open-source organizations already have their own policies. Attached is the current draft of that policy, which is based on the Linux Foundation and Apache Software Foundation guidance. This has been discussed at the TF.org board and more recently, the TSC (see minutes herehttps://lists.trustedfirmware.org/archives/list/tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.org/thread/DIDKNFC6NCMVGHT7SOYKHB56R2XTNCUO/). Eric Finco @ ST had 2 pieces of feedback to this, the 2nd of which prompted me to seek this wider input. To summarize that feedback:

1. Eric would like all contributions that use AI assistants to explicitly attribute the tool(s) used in the contribution for transparency reasons. The counter feedback is that this might be onerous to generate (especially if a tool has a complex backend) and there is no clear use for that information. 2. Eric would like the policy to apply to all TrustedFirmware.org projects, rather allowing projects to develop their own project-specific guidance (as per the current draft).

Some of this might require more interaction discussion. My plan was to invite you all to a future TSC meeting (perhaps in September) to discuss further. I’m happy to take feedback on the policy, Eric’s feedback or the process to handle this. Feel free to reply to this email (to all or just to me), or just wait for that TSC meeting.

Best regards

Dan.

Hi David

Yes, I agree GPL doesn't make sense for docs but I prefer to play it safe. You're right a compromise is to just reference the doc rather than copying bits of it. We'll do that.

Cheers

Dan.

From: David Brown david.brown@linaro.org Date: Tuesday, 2 June 2026 at 18:35 To: Dan Handley Dan.Handley@arm.com Cc: Soby Mathew Soby.Mathew@arm.com; Sandrine Bailleux Sandrine.Afsa@arm.com; Manish Pandey2 Manish.Pandey2@arm.com; Olivier Deprez Olivier.Deprez@arm.com; Bipin Ravi Bipin.Ravi@arm.com; Joanna Farley Joanna.Farley@arm.com; Julius Werner jwerner@google.com; Varun Wadekar vwadekar@nvidia.com; Raghu Krishnamurthy raghupathyk@nvidia.com; yann.gautier@st.com yann.gautier@st.com; Manish Badarkhe Manish.Badarkhe@arm.com; Ermel, Dominik dominik.ermel@nordicsemi.no; jamie.mccrae@nordicsemi.no jamie.mccrae@nordicsemi.no; Anton Komlev Anton.Komlev@arm.com; Antonio De Angelis Antonio.DeAngelis@arm.com; Alexei Fedorov Alexei.Fedorov@arm.com; Javier Almansa Sobrino Javier.AlmansaSobrino@arm.com; Arunachalam Ganapathy Arunachalam.Ganapathy@arm.com; Jens Wiklander jens.wiklander@linaro.org; jerome.forissier@linaro.org jerome.forissier@linaro.org; etienne.carriere@foss.st.com etienne.carriere@foss.st.com; Gilles Peskine Gilles.Peskine@arm.com; Janos Follath Janos.Follath@arm.com; Manuel Pegourie-Gonnard Manuel.Pegourie-Gonnard@arm.com; Ronald Cron Ronald.Cron@arm.com; Madhukar Pappireddy Madhukar.Pappireddy@arm.com; Gyorgy Szing Gyorgy.Szing@arm.com; tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.org tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.org Subject: Re: Feedback requested on TrustedFirmware.org "Guidance on AI-assisted contributions"

Not sure of direct writings. For the most part, the GPL applies to code, and most of it's provisions don't even make sense with documentation. But, it's fine if we want to be conservative about it. We could either reference their document, or just make our own.

David

On Tue, Jun 2, 2026 at 10:18 AM Dan Handley <Dan.Handley@arm.commailto:Dan.Handley@arm.com> wrote:

The FSF position has generally been that documentation does not create an aggregate work.

Do you have a reference for this FSF position? If there's something off-the-shelf we can use that may work but I'm not sure there's enough motivation (from Arm at least) to obtain legal advice or seek Linux licensing changes.

Cheers

Dan.

From: David Brown <david.brown@linaro.orgmailto:david.brown@linaro.org> Date: Tuesday, 2 June 2026 at 16:53 To: Dan Handley <Dan.Handley@arm.commailto:Dan.Handley@arm.com> Cc: Soby Mathew <Soby.Mathew@arm.commailto:Soby.Mathew@arm.com>; Sandrine Bailleux <Sandrine.Afsa@arm.commailto:Sandrine.Afsa@arm.com>; Manish Pandey2 <Manish.Pandey2@arm.commailto:Manish.Pandey2@arm.com>; Olivier Deprez <Olivier.Deprez@arm.commailto:Olivier.Deprez@arm.com>; Bipin Ravi <Bipin.Ravi@arm.commailto:Bipin.Ravi@arm.com>; Joanna Farley <Joanna.Farley@arm.commailto:Joanna.Farley@arm.com>; Julius Werner <jwerner@google.commailto:jwerner@google.com>; Varun Wadekar <vwadekar@nvidia.commailto:vwadekar@nvidia.com>; Raghu Krishnamurthy <raghupathyk@nvidia.commailto:raghupathyk@nvidia.com>; yann.gautier@st.commailto:yann.gautier@st.com <yann.gautier@st.commailto:yann.gautier@st.com>; Manish Badarkhe <Manish.Badarkhe@arm.commailto:Manish.Badarkhe@arm.com>; Ermel, Dominik <dominik.ermel@nordicsemi.nomailto:dominik.ermel@nordicsemi.no>; jamie.mccrae@nordicsemi.nomailto:jamie.mccrae@nordicsemi.no <jamie.mccrae@nordicsemi.nomailto:jamie.mccrae@nordicsemi.no>; Anton Komlev <Anton.Komlev@arm.commailto:Anton.Komlev@arm.com>; Antonio De Angelis <Antonio.DeAngelis@arm.commailto:Antonio.DeAngelis@arm.com>; Alexei Fedorov <Alexei.Fedorov@arm.commailto:Alexei.Fedorov@arm.com>; Javier Almansa Sobrino <Javier.AlmansaSobrino@arm.commailto:Javier.AlmansaSobrino@arm.com>; Arunachalam Ganapathy <Arunachalam.Ganapathy@arm.commailto:Arunachalam.Ganapathy@arm.com>; Jens Wiklander <jens.wiklander@linaro.orgmailto:jens.wiklander@linaro.org>; jerome.forissier@linaro.orgmailto:jerome.forissier@linaro.org <jerome.forissier@linaro.orgmailto:jerome.forissier@linaro.org>; etienne.carriere@foss.st.commailto:etienne.carriere@foss.st.com <etienne.carriere@foss.st.commailto:etienne.carriere@foss.st.com>; Gilles Peskine <Gilles.Peskine@arm.commailto:Gilles.Peskine@arm.com>; Janos Follath <Janos.Follath@arm.commailto:Janos.Follath@arm.com>; Manuel Pegourie-Gonnard <Manuel.Pegourie-Gonnard@arm.commailto:Manuel.Pegourie-Gonnard@arm.com>; Ronald Cron <Ronald.Cron@arm.commailto:Ronald.Cron@arm.com>; Madhukar Pappireddy <Madhukar.Pappireddy@arm.commailto:Madhukar.Pappireddy@arm.com>; Gyorgy Szing <Gyorgy.Szing@arm.commailto:Gyorgy.Szing@arm.com>; tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.orgmailto:tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.org <tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.orgmailto:tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.org> Subject: Re: Feedback requested on TrustedFirmware.org "Guidance on AI-assisted contributions"

which prevents us copying parts of this policy to TF.org documentation without affecting the licensing of the TF.org website.

This isn't really true. The GPL "infectious" nature applies to code that is triggered by a distribution of a combined/derivative work. The FSF position has generally been that documentation does not create an aggregate work.

Another option is to just ask Sasha (and any other authors) if adding an additional license to the file would be permissible, even explaining our use case.

David

On Tue, Jun 2, 2026 at 3:25 AM Dan Handley <Dan.Handley@arm.commailto:Dan.Handley@arm.com> wrote: Hello again

After looking at the below proposal again, we have a hit a snag. The Linux policy referred to below (like the rest of the Linux source) is covered by the GPL-2.0 license, which prevents us copying parts of this policy to TF.org documentation without affecting the licensing of the TF.org website. The potentially valuable part would be the defined format, in case any future analysis tools were created to parse such tags. I'm not sure there's much value in changing the tag name alone.

Therefore, unless anyone has any solution suggestions, I'm going to withdraw my proposal to change the TF.org policy. If you'd like to discuss this more at the next TSC, let me know.

Regards

Dan.

From: Dan Handley via TSC <tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.orgmailto:tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.org> Date: Thursday, 23 April 2026 at 15:59 To: Soby Mathew <Soby.Mathew@arm.commailto:Soby.Mathew@arm.com>; Sandrine Bailleux <Sandrine.Afsa@arm.commailto:Sandrine.Afsa@arm.com>; Manish Pandey2 <Manish.Pandey2@arm.commailto:Manish.Pandey2@arm.com>; Olivier Deprez <Olivier.Deprez@arm.commailto:Olivier.Deprez@arm.com>; Bipin Ravi <Bipin.Ravi@arm.commailto:Bipin.Ravi@arm.com>; Joanna Farley <Joanna.Farley@arm.commailto:Joanna.Farley@arm.com>; Julius Werner <jwerner@google.commailto:jwerner@google.com>; Varun Wadekar <vwadekar@nvidia.commailto:vwadekar@nvidia.com>; Raghu Krishnamurthy <raghupathyk@nvidia.commailto:raghupathyk@nvidia.com>; yann.gautier@st.commailto:yann.gautier@st.com <yann.gautier@st.commailto:yann.gautier@st.com>; Manish Badarkhe <Manish.Badarkhe@arm.commailto:Manish.Badarkhe@arm.com>; David Brown (david.brown@linaro.orgmailto:david.brown@linaro.org) <david.brown@linaro.orgmailto:david.brown@linaro.org>; Ermel, Dominik <dominik.ermel@nordicsemi.nomailto:dominik.ermel@nordicsemi.no>; jamie.mccrae@nordicsemi.nomailto:jamie.mccrae@nordicsemi.no <jamie.mccrae@nordicsemi.nomailto:jamie.mccrae@nordicsemi.no>; Anton Komlev <Anton.Komlev@arm.commailto:Anton.Komlev@arm.com>; Antonio De Angelis <Antonio.DeAngelis@arm.commailto:Antonio.DeAngelis@arm.com>; Alexei Fedorov <Alexei.Fedorov@arm.commailto:Alexei.Fedorov@arm.com>; Javier Almansa Sobrino <Javier.AlmansaSobrino@arm.commailto:Javier.AlmansaSobrino@arm.com>; Arunachalam Ganapathy <Arunachalam.Ganapathy@arm.commailto:Arunachalam.Ganapathy@arm.com>; Jens Wiklander <jens.wiklander@linaro.orgmailto:jens.wiklander@linaro.org>; jerome.forissier@linaro.orgmailto:jerome.forissier@linaro.org <jerome.forissier@linaro.orgmailto:jerome.forissier@linaro.org>; etienne.carriere@foss.st.commailto:etienne.carriere@foss.st.com <etienne.carriere@foss.st.commailto:etienne.carriere@foss.st.com>; Gilles Peskine <Gilles.Peskine@arm.commailto:Gilles.Peskine@arm.com>; Janos Follath <Janos.Follath@arm.commailto:Janos.Follath@arm.com>; Manuel Pegourie-Gonnard <Manuel.Pegourie-Gonnard@arm.commailto:Manuel.Pegourie-Gonnard@arm.com>; Ronald Cron <Ronald.Cron@arm.commailto:Ronald.Cron@arm.com>; Madhukar Pappireddy <Madhukar.Pappireddy@arm.commailto:Madhukar.Pappireddy@arm.com>; Gyorgy Szing <Gyorgy.Szing@arm.commailto:Gyorgy.Szing@arm.com> Cc: tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.orgmailto:tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.org <tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.orgmailto:tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.org> Subject: [TF-TSC] Re: Feedback requested on TrustedFirmware.org "Guidance on AI-assisted contributions"

Hi TSC and TF.org maintainers

This is an update on the TF.org guidance for AI-assisted contributions. The current guidance is published here: https://www.trustedfirmware.org/aipolicy/. This includes a recommendation to attribute such contributions using a "Co-developed-by:" tag.

Recently the Linux project added its own guidance: https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/Documentation/process/coding-a.... This is largely aligned with the TF.org guidance but recommends a different attribution tag name and format:

"Contributions should include an Assisted-by tag in the following format:

Assisted-by: AGENT_NAME:MODEL_VERSION [TOOL1] [TOOL2]"

This was discussed at the last TSC meeting: https://lists.trustedfirmware.org/archives/list/tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.or...

Given that Co-developed-by: is not yet widely used for AI-assisted contributions at TF.org (see minutes for an exception) or the wider open-source ecosystem, and Linux's decision that this tag is not suitable for AI-assisted contributions, we (the TSC) propose that we align the TF.org guidance with the Linux guidance.

If you have any objection to this, please reply to this email. If we have no objections, we will proceed with the change.

Thank you and regards

Dan.

From: Dan Handley <Dan.Handley@arm.commailto:Dan.Handley@arm.com> Date: Thursday, 31 July 2025 at 17:24 To: Soby Mathew <Soby.Mathew@arm.commailto:Soby.Mathew@arm.com>; Sandrine Bailleux <Sandrine.Afsa@arm.commailto:Sandrine.Afsa@arm.com>; Manish Pandey2 <Manish.Pandey2@arm.commailto:Manish.Pandey2@arm.com>; Olivier Deprez <Olivier.Deprez@arm.commailto:Olivier.Deprez@arm.com>; Bipin Ravi <Bipin.Ravi@arm.commailto:Bipin.Ravi@arm.com>; Joanna Farley <Joanna.Farley@arm.commailto:Joanna.Farley@arm.com>; Julius Werner <jwerner@google.commailto:jwerner@google.com>; Varun Wadekar <vwadekar@nvidia.commailto:vwadekar@nvidia.com>; Raghu Krishnamurthy <raghupathyk@nvidia.commailto:raghupathyk@nvidia.com>; yann.gautier@st.commailto:yann.gautier@st.com <yann.gautier@st.commailto:yann.gautier@st.com>; Manish Badarkhe <Manish.Badarkhe@arm.commailto:Manish.Badarkhe@arm.com>; David Brown (david.brown@linaro.orgmailto:david.brown@linaro.org) <david.brown@linaro.orgmailto:david.brown@linaro.org>; Ermel, Dominik <dominik.ermel@nordicsemi.nomailto:dominik.ermel@nordicsemi.no>; jamie.mccrae@nordicsemi.nomailto:jamie.mccrae@nordicsemi.no <jamie.mccrae@nordicsemi.nomailto:jamie.mccrae@nordicsemi.no>; Anton Komlev <Anton.Komlev@arm.commailto:Anton.Komlev@arm.com>; Antonio De Angelis <Antonio.DeAngelis@arm.commailto:Antonio.DeAngelis@arm.com>; Alexei Fedorov <Alexei.Fedorov@arm.commailto:Alexei.Fedorov@arm.com>; Javier Almansa Sobrino <Javier.AlmansaSobrino@arm.commailto:Javier.AlmansaSobrino@arm.com>; Arunachalam Ganapathy <Arunachalam.Ganapathy@arm.commailto:Arunachalam.Ganapathy@arm.com>; Jens Wiklander <jens.wiklander@linaro.orgmailto:jens.wiklander@linaro.org>; jerome.forissier@linaro.orgmailto:jerome.forissier@linaro.org <jerome.forissier@linaro.orgmailto:jerome.forissier@linaro.org>; etienne.carriere@foss.st.commailto:etienne.carriere@foss.st.com <etienne.carriere@foss.st.commailto:etienne.carriere@foss.st.com>; Gilles Peskine <Gilles.Peskine@arm.commailto:Gilles.Peskine@arm.com>; Janos Follath <Janos.Follath@arm.commailto:Janos.Follath@arm.com>; Manuel Pegourie-Gonnard <Manuel.Pegourie-Gonnard@arm.commailto:Manuel.Pegourie-Gonnard@arm.com>; Ronald Cron <Ronald.Cron@arm.commailto:Ronald.Cron@arm.com>; Joao Alves <Joao.Alves@arm.commailto:Joao.Alves@arm.com>; Madhukar Pappireddy <Madhukar.Pappireddy@arm.commailto:Madhukar.Pappireddy@arm.com>; Gyorgy Szing <Gyorgy.Szing@arm.commailto:Gyorgy.Szing@arm.com> Cc: tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.orgmailto:tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.org <tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.orgmailto:tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.org> Subject: Feedback requested on TrustedFirmware.org "Guidance on AI-assisted contributions"

Hi all

I’ve sent this to what I hope is a representative subset of TrustedFirmware.org project maintainers. Feel free to forward to others you think should be included.

I’m writing to gather maintainer feedback on a proposal for TrustedFirmware.org to have a policy on the use of AI-assistants in code contributions. Several other open-source organizations already have their own policies. Attached is the current draft of that policy, which is based on the Linux Foundation and Apache Software Foundation guidance. This has been discussed at the TF.org board and more recently, the TSC (see minutes herehttps://lists.trustedfirmware.org/archives/list/tsc@lists.trustedfirmware.org/thread/DIDKNFC6NCMVGHT7SOYKHB56R2XTNCUO/). Eric Finco @ ST had 2 pieces of feedback to this, the 2nd of which prompted me to seek this wider input. To summarize that feedback:

1. Eric would like all contributions that use AI assistants to explicitly attribute the tool(s) used in the contribution for transparency reasons. The counter feedback is that this might be onerous to generate (especially if a tool has a complex backend) and there is no clear use for that information. 2. Eric would like the policy to apply to all TrustedFirmware.org projects, rather allowing projects to develop their own project-specific guidance (as per the current draft).

Some of this might require more interaction discussion. My plan was to invite you all to a future TSC meeting (perhaps in September) to discuss further. I’m happy to take feedback on the policy, Eric’s feedback or the process to handle this. Feel free to reply to this email (to all or just to me), or just wait for that TSC meeting.

Best regards

Dan.