As of April 2026, the policy bans using AI or large language models to generate code for SDL contributions due to concerns about unknown-origin sources and potential license conflicts with the Zlib license.

AI can help identify issues in contributions, but final solutions must be authored by humans to prevent hallucinations and misidentifications.

Contributors must confirm authorship and certify that their changes are licensed under Zlib when submitting pull requests.

The policy is subject to evolution as AI tooling and LLMs develop, with ongoing discussions referencing the original pull request on GitHub (SDL/pull/15353).

SDL, a widely used cross-platform library for low-level audio, input, and graphics, has formally banned AI-generated code contributions.