Gnome Says No to AI-Generated Extensions

Jan 05, 2026

If you're a developer wanting to create a new Gnome extension, you'd best set aside that AI code generator, because the extension team will have none of that.

Shell extensions are a crucial part of the Gnome desktop. Without shell extensions, Gnome would not be nearly as customizable, which would very likely send users packing.

Recently, Gnome extension reviewer Javad Rahmatzadeh, who spends nearly six hours a day reviewing extension code, has noticed a rise in submissions that contain AI-generated code.

The Gnome extension team is not amused. According to Rahmatzadeh, the team has noticed "unnecessary lines and bad practices. And once a bad practice is introduced in one package, it can create a domino effect, appearing on other extensions. That alone has increased the waiting time for all packages to be reviewed."

In other words, poorly written AI code is causing trouble for legitimate extensions.

To that end, the team has created a new rule for the EGO review guidelines that states, "Submissions with large amounts of unnecessary code, inconsistent code style, imaginary API usage, comments serving as LLM prompts, or other indications of AI-generated output will be rejected."

The team isn't saying that extension developers are not allowed to use AI for things like learning or fixing issues. However, if you write an extension using AI, your code will be rejected.
 
 

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