#501: Update contribution guideline with rules for AI usage. Added CoC.

CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md

@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+# OpenFastTrace Project Code of Conduct
+
+* Treat others with respect.
+* Criticize ideas, not people.
+* Back up your arguments with facts and reasoning.
+* Keep discussions on topic and concise.
+* Disagreements are fine — personal attacks are not.
+* Help people who ask for it. We were all beginners once.
+* Offer solutions, not just complaints.

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -12,7 +12,14 @@ If you are looking for general information about what OpenFastTrace is, please m
 If you are a programmer and want to help us improve the implementation, test cases or design of OFT please create a branch of the current `main` branch of OFT using [git](https://git-scm.com/) and make your changes on that branch.
 
 Then please create a pull request and ask for a review by one of the core team members (e.g. `redcatbear` or `kaklakariada`).
-The reviewers will either ask you to work in review findings or if there are none, merge your branch.
+The reviewers will either ask you to incorporate their review findings, or if there are none, they will merge your branch.
+
+## AI Assisted Coding
+We accept contributions that were written with the assistance of AI coding agents. If you rely heavily on AI assistance, please include a note in your pull request explaining how you used the AI agent and what parts of the code were generated by the AI. Also, we expect you to review every single line of code generated by AI before you submit your pull request.
+
+We **do not accept** contributions submitted directly by AI agents. A real person must always be responsible for the submitted code.
+
+We also will not accept contributions that are clearly generated by AI agents but not labeled as such.
 
 ## Testing
 We are happy if you test OFT! While we do a great deal of testing ourselves, we want OFT to be as portable as possible. So it is especially helpful for us if you test on a platform that we don't have.
@@ -31,9 +38,9 @@ We plan to make OFT multilingual. If you want to provide a translation, feel fre
 Found a clever way to apply OFT in a new field of application? [Share your story with the OFT community](https://github.com/itsallcode/openfasttrace/wiki/OFT-Stories)!
 
 ## Ideas
-Last but not least if you have ideas for ways to improve or extend OFT, feel free to write a [feature request](https://github.com/itsallcode/openfasttrace/issues/new?template=Feature_request.md).
+Last but not least, if you have ideas for ways to improve or extend OFT, feel free to write a [feature request](https://github.com/itsallcode/openfasttrace/issues/new?template=Feature_request.md).
 
 # Style Guides
 We want OFT to have a professional and uniform coding style. Formatter rules for Eclipse are part of the project. If you use a different editor, please make sure to match the current code formatting.
 
-We develop the code following the principles described in Robert C. Martin's book "Clean Code" as our guide line for designing and organizing the code.
+We develop the code following the principles described in Robert C. Martin's book "Clean Code" as our guideline for designing and organizing the code.

README.md

@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ Sonarcloud status:
 * [🦮 Developer Guide](doc/developer_guide.md)
 * [🔌 Plugin Developer Guide](doc/plugin_developer_guide.md)
 * [🎁 Contributing Guide](CONTRIBUTING.md)
+* [🤝 Code of Conduct](CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md)
 * [💡 System Requirements](doc/spec/system_requirements.md)
 * [👜 Design](doc/spec/design.md)
 

doc/changes/changes_4.2.3.md

@@ -4,8 +4,15 @@ Code name: Protobuf file support
 
 ## Summary
 
+In this release we added support for Protobuf definition files. We also introduced a Code of Conduct and updated the contribution guidelines with rules for AI-assisted coding.
+
+The new Code of Conduct emphasizes respectful communication and constructive collaboration within the project, focusing on ideas rather than people. The contribution guidelines now explicitly state how AI-assisted coding is accepted, requiring that human contributors remain responsible for all submissions and review AI-generated code thoroughly.
 In this release we added support for Protobuf definition files. We also introduced the OpenFastTrace Claude Skill, which enables the Claude LLM to author specifications, run traces, and perform selective tracing.
 
+## Documentation
+
+* #501: Updated contribution guideline with rules for AI-assisted coding
+
 ## Features
 
 * #499: Introduced the OpenFastTrace Claude Skill for assisting with requirement tracing