System76’s COSMIC project has updated its contribution rules and will no longer accept pull requests that include LLM-generated content.
The COSMIC pull request template now includes this change. Contributors must confirm that their submissions do not contain any LLM-generated content, including source code, comments, and pull request descriptions. If this confirmation is missing, the pull request may be closed.
Contributors must also confirm that they understand the changes they are submitting, can answer review feedback, have tested their work, and certify it under the Developer Certificate of Origin.
Jeremy Soller from System76 said the main reason for the change is the extra review work for the COSMIC team. He explained that maintainers have seen more submissions from first-time contributors using LLMs, but many of these were unplanned and rarely accepted.
The policy is not meant to oppose AI tools in general, but to keep the review process manageable. AI-generated contributions still need careful review, and they often come from contributors who may not know the project well.
COSMIC developers were already careful with these types of contributions before this update. In August, contributor Jacob Gkau said that most large LLM-written PRs were already being rejected, especially if they raised copyright or maintainability issues. The project already required contributors to disclose AI-generated code and understand their submissions.
The new rule is stricter: pull requests must not include any LLM-generated content at all, instead of just requiring disclosure.
However, there is one exception. The policy is different for cosmic-flatpak, where upstream projects manage their own Flatpak manifests. The COSMIC team mainly checks these manifests for proper sandboxing before accepting them.
This change comes as more open-source projects are deciding how to handle AI-assisted contributions. For COSMIC, the rule is now clear. Contributors must write and understand their own submissions, and they may not use LLM-generated code, comments, or PR descriptions.
