Debian
The universal operating system, one of the oldest community Linux distributions.
Friendly. Welcomes AI-assisted work.
By general resolution in August 2026, Debian chose "Responsible Use of Generative AI" over seven other options, including bans. Generative AI is neither endorsed nor prohibited: contributors must understand, review and test AI-assisted output, consider licensing and remain fully accountable. Disclosure is encouraged but not required, and mass automated actions need prior discussion and human oversight.
Policy by area
- Code contributionsPatches, pull requests and other changes written with AI tools.
- Friendly
- Contributor takes full responsibility
- A human must review the output
- Output must be license-compatible
- Issues & bug reportsBug reports, security reports and issues found or written with AI tools.
- Friendly
- Contributor takes full responsibility
- AI-written textPull request descriptions, issue comments and summaries written by AI.
- No policy
In their own words
Code contributions
Debian neither endorses nor prohibits the use of generative AI tools in the development, maintenance, or documentation of software, packaging, documentation, and other media published within the Debian Project.
Contributors are expected to understand, review, test, and, where appropriate, modify AI-assisted output before incorporating it into Debian.
We enourage our contributors to disclose whether a contribution was made with AI assitance, but do not require them to do so.
to consider the provenance and licensing implications of material they contribute
Issues & bug reports
Contributors intending to perform actions with broad project impact, such as mass bug filing or patch submission, large-scale code modifications, or other automated changes or requests affecting many packages or contributors, should seek prior discussion and consensus through the appropriate project channels before proceeding.
Any such automated process should be overseen by a human who remains accountable for its behavior and output.
Sources
- Debian General Resolution 2026-002: LLM usage in Debianwww.debian.org/vote/2026/vote_002Snapshot 9 Oct 2026