A survey of 133 contributors across nearly 100 CNCF projects reveals how AI is being used in cloud-native open source development. Claude Code and GitHub Copilot are the leading tools, with nearly half of contributors using AI directly in their IDEs. AI is most helpful for writing/refactoring code, documentation, understanding codebases, and PR analysis. A major finding is the governance gap: roughly two-thirds of respondents are unaware of any official AI policies in their projects. Community sentiment is generally accepting, with most maintainers applying standard review processes to AI-generated contributions. Top concerns include security vulnerabilities, license compliance, and low-effort PR floods. Over half of respondents want mandatory disclosure of AI-assisted contributions. The survey remains open until May 18.
Table of contents
Who is answering?How maintainers use AI: Tools and workflowsWhere AI helps the mostThe gap between AI use and official policiesCommunity sentiment and code reviewsTop concerns and the call for transparencyWrapping upSort: