The Debian project is polling its developers over AI usage: use it, impose limits, or ban it outright.The second Debian vote of the year, General Resolution: LLM usage in Debian is underway. More saliently, it is still underway – Debian Project Lead Sruthi Chandran extended the voting deadline by an extra week. (She was elected in March, in the first project poll of 2026.)Debian is a large and complicated project: the release announcement for version 13 says it has 69,830 packages, which take a total of 403 GB of disk, and contain 1,463,291,186 lines of code. So, suitably, it is a large and complex poll.
The poll is more than 5,000 words long, and contains eight different proposals, which are both numbered and lettered. Each of them is seconded by between six and 17 developers. They are as follows:
No LLM contributions to Debian via Social Contract.Allow AI-Assisted Contributions with conditions.Reject LLMs as far as practical, update Code of Conduct.Accept AI contributions for Debian specific work.Responsible Use of Generative AI.A cautious approach to generative AI.Debian is created by humans.Avoid the use of LLM: climate destruction is a deal breaker.The poll also notes:“Proposal A needs a 3:1 majority, the other proposals need a simple majority.”This aside, there’s a lot of variation under each proposal. Some are structured, some contain explanations and lists of what they would or would not apply to, some contain summaries, and so on. Only recognized Debian developers are eligible to vote, but we hope that they’re not put off by the wall of text and take the time to work out which of the fairly subtle variations best represents their views.Proposal A is one of the longest. The closest thing it has to a summary is its “preamble,” which says:“This proposal aims to expressly forbid any contributions to Debian written with the use or assistance of large language models (LLMs) or other generative AI tools.”Proposal B would permit LLM-based contributions, so long as they meet six requirements. These cover “legal compatibility,” “licensing and attribution,” “accountability,” “disclosure,” “prior discussion of bulk or automated changes,” and “confidentiality and privacy.”Proposal C calls for a total ban, and its summary is simple: “Reject LLMs (generative”AI”) as far as practical.” It’s backed by “Debian grandee Ian Jackson”, who wrote dpkg and runs Chiark.
