# Building with AI: Our Approach to Responsible Agentic Development in Open Source > Source: > Published: 2026-07-28 12:36:14+00:00 The tech world has been building up towards the shift to a **fully agentic development life cycle** for a few years now. AI is changing how software gets built. Across the Puppet ecosystem, we're seeing a shift toward more agentic engineering workflows. AI helps generate code, shape documentation, and accelerate how Puppet modules evolve. This brings real benefits in speed and consistency, but it also raises important questions from the community: These are exactly the kinds of questions we should be asking! This article will outline how Perforce and the Puppet team are approaching the use of AI in our open source modules and repositories. At Perforce, AI is a core part of our process and our teams operate within a **defined, governed framework** for development. We don’t rely on trust in the tool itself. We rely on the processes around it. Whether a change is written by a person, generated with AI, or some mix of both, they are held to the same standards before it’s accepted and released. In practice, that means: At a high level, our approach is simple: **the outcome matters more than how the code was created.** Community members are not required to use code assist tools when providing contributions to Puppet open source projects, even when those projects contain frameworks or files designed to support coding agents. Contributions can be made using any tools or workflows that work best for you and there is no expectation to match the Perforce technology stack. While the Puppet team will be adding instructions, skills, and other artifacts to support agentic workflows, including tools like Claude Code, these are provided as optional enhancements, not requirements. When contributions are reviewed, the same standards apply regardless of how they were created. This includes contributions that contain AI-generated code, are submitted by AI agents, or have been tested or reviewed using AI tools. We welcome contributions in any form, but all submissions go through the same review and approval process before they are accepted and released. Another important question we hear is how we avoid duplication or inconsistency as AI becomes part of the workflow. This is where **ecosystem-level thinking and governance** matter most and where we will be incrementally improving our engineering patterns. Here’s how we approach that: Building with AI tools is not left to individual discretion. AI usage at Perforce follows [structured processes](https://trust.perforce.com/resources?s=h4ucgvqdld3suqiwml8o4d&name=ai-governance-at-perforce) designed to ensure quality, security, and accountability across the lifecycle. Here’s what that looks like for Puppet open source teams: AI usage is part of a broader [ AI management system aligned with ISO 42001,](https://www.perforce.com/press-releases/%20ISO-42001-Certification) ensuring responsible use across the lifecycle. We also recognize the broader concerns around AI. We're deliberate about how and where AI is used. At its core, governance is about maintaining control while enabling progress. AI should operate within the systems teams already trust, not bypass them. This evolution isn’t happening in isolation. The Puppet modules team works within an open source ecosystem and it’s important that the community is informed about AI usage and included so that all members of the community are able to provide feedback as these processes evolve. **Our goal is to provide:** This is a new world of software delivery that we all maintainers and contributors are collaborating in, and we'll need to work together to find the right process for everyone. The agentic software development lifecycle is going to continue to shift and grow. AI will continue to play a growing role in how modules are developed and maintained. **In your favorite Puppetlabs modules, you are going to see:** There is one thing that won't change: **Every contribution will be held to the same standards of quality, consistency, and trust.** In the end, trust in AI doesn’t come from the model. It comes from the systems, processes, and people behind it. We want to hear from the community as we continue to evolve these practices and develop a solid agentic-supported workflow for our open source community. We’d love your feedback, so please share your thoughts here or in the Puppet Community Slack. These additional resources could be helpful if you are interested in this topic and want to learn more! You'll probably notice a few tell-tale structural suggestions from AI on this one. I experimented with drafting with AI on this one, using our AI Governance documentation and some context I provided about how we work on the Puppet team. From that draft, it has gone through multiple human reviews and a LOT of editing and rework, with a final review by an AI agent for brand voice alignment.