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Contributing to QuTiP Development

You are most welcome to contribute to QuTiP development by forking this repository and sending pull requests, or filing bug reports at the issues page. You can also help out with users' questions, or discuss proposed changes in the QuTiP discussion group. All code contributions are acknowledged in the contributors section in the documentation.

For more information, including technical advice, please see the "contributing to QuTiP development" section of the documentation.

AI Tools Usage Policy

We acknowledge the use of AI tools to improve efficiency and enhance quality of work. Contributors may use such tools, provided they adhere to the following guidelines:

1. Accountability

The human contributor is solely responsible for their contribution i.e. all the AI-generated outputs can be considered their own work. If you're submitting a Pull Request that includes AI-generated code or documentation:

  • You are responsible for ensuring that code you submit meets the project's standards.
  • You must fully understand every line of code in the submission.
  • You must be able to explain the "why" behind the implementation during the review process.

2. Transparency

All Pull Requests must fill the AI Tools Usage Disclosure in the PR template. This disclosure is mandatory and must accurately reflect how AI Tools were used.

3. Copyright & Legal

By submitting a contribution to qutip, you agree to

  1. Submit your contribution under the project's license.

  2. The contribution does not violate any third-party rights or the terms of service of the AI provider. And does not include "regurgitated" code from libraries with incompatible licenses (e.g., GPL-licensed code) being suggested into our BSD-3-clause licensed project.

  3. AI agents must not sign commits or be added to commit message trailer Co-authored-by: since copyright is fundamentally tied to the concept of human authorship as per the US Copyright law. You can instead use Assisted-by: AI Model/Tool as commit message trailer e.g. Assisted-by: Cursor with Opus 4.6.

4. Good Use Cases

  • Understand the codebase: AI can be used to explore unfamiliar parts of the repository, summarize modules and clarify how components interact. It helps build the mental model of the project faster.

  • Brainstorming and Design: AI may assist in generating ideas, evaluating different approaches and structuring designs. However, all final decisions regarding design and architecture should be independently validated and be made by the contributor.

  • Reviewing your implementation: AI can be used to spot potential bugs, suggest improvements and help clarify unexpected behavior in code. Contributors should verify the correctness and relevance of AI-generated feedback before applying it.

5. Prohibited Use

The following use cases are prohibited:

  • Communication: In project communications (GitHub Issues, Discussion, PR descriptions and review comments), we personally expect to communicate directly with other humans not with automated systems. Use of translation tools is completely welcome.

  • Ban on Bots/Agents: Fully autonomous or unsupervised AI agents (e.g. OpenClaw, SWE-agent) are not allowed to submit Pull Requests.

  • Stance on Good First Issues: The main purpose of a “good first issue” is to allow new human contributors to get familiar with qutip, with the GitHub workflow and to engage with the community. Submitting a fully AI-generated PR defeats that purpose. AI can be used as a learning aid to understand the codebase, but the final implementation must be your own.

6. Enforcement

Maintainers reserve the right to close any Pull Request that violates this Policy. Maintainers may restrict participation or report users to GitHub for repeated violations of this policy.