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Show Your Work

The school rule that the industry forgot.

Why This Page Exists

AI is powerful. That is exactly why it is dangerous to use without disclosure.

When a tool can write code, generate documentation, and draft legal text, the people who rely on that output deserve to know what was human and what wasn’t. Not because AI output is bad — but because trust requires verifiability. I can’t ask you to trust my software if I’m unwilling to show you how it was made.

And yet we operate in an industry that treats AI as a trade secret — something to hide, because admitting you use it might make your work seem less valuable. Companies silently feed code through AI, strip the attribution, and deliver it as though a human wrote every line.

I think that’s backwards.

AI is a tool. I use it. I’m transparent about it. The work is better for it — not because the AI is smarter than me, but because the combination of human judgment and AI capability, with proper oversight, produces results neither could achieve alone. The key word is oversight. The AI helps; I decide. And you can verify that yourself.

Hiding AI involvement helps no one. It erodes trust, undermines accountability, and makes quality audit impossible. If the industry won’t set this standard, I will — starting with my own work.

The Bigger Picture

The threat is not hypothetical. Governments and institutions are already using AI-generated content to shape public perception — not with truth, but with volume. When fabricated text is indistinguishable from genuine analysis, and when the tools to produce it are available to anyone with an agenda, radical verifiability is the only defence. Not “trust me” — but “here is the evidence, verify it yourself.”

That is what AI transparency is: a defensive weapon against a world where truth is increasingly manufactured. Every commit trailer, every provenance file, every disclosed AI contribution is a small act of resistance against the idea that it doesn’t matter where information comes from.

I can’t fix the information climate. But I can make sure that everything that leaves my hands is traceable, accountable, and honest. That is the standard. It is not up for debate.

How I Disclose

Every NeatNerds product follows the same disclosure protocol. This is not a policy document sitting in a drawer — it is enforced by tooling, verified by CI pipelines, and visible in every repository.

Git commit trailers

Every commit that involved AI assistance carries a trailer:

  • AI-Generated-By — the AI produced the primary content
  • AI-Co-Author — the AI and a human wrote together
  • AI-Assisted-By — the AI provided suggestions, the human wrote it
  • AI-Reviewed-By — the AI reviewed human-authored code

Concrete example (from openvox-mcp):

feat(tools): add format_trailer MCP tool for commit attribution

Implements the format_trailer tool that generates properly
formatted git commit trailers for AI attribution.

AI-Co-Author: Claude Sonnet 4.5 (Anthropic) 
Signed-off-by: Hugo Antonio Sepulveda Manriquez

Provenance files

Every repository contains an .ai-provenance.yml file documenting which AI tools were used, which model versions, the scope of AI involvement, and the session dates and context.

SPDX headers

All source files carry SPDX licence headers identifying the licence, the copyright holder, and the file origin.

Human review gates

AI output is not delivered without review: linting, static analysis, mutation testing, test coverage, human review. The AI proposes. The CI pipeline validates. The human decides.

What This Means for You

As a user

You can verify exactly what was AI-assisted. Clone the repository, run git log, read the trailers.

As a contributor

The same disclosure standards apply to you.

As a client

Custom work follows the same transparency protocol.

Why the Industry Needs This

AI disclosure is not a NeatNerds quirk. When AI-generated code is delivered without attribution, no one can audit it. The EU AI Act requires transparency. Belgian federal IT guidelines are evolving toward disclosure requirements. NeatNerds builds tools (openvox-mcp, Rosett-AI) to help.

Work in Progress

I’ll be honest: this transparency standard is something I am building, not something I have perfected. Not every historical commit carries a perfect trailer. I’m human, and this process is new for everyone. Going forward, the standard is established, the tooling enforces it, and the intention is genuine.

Transparency is not a feature. It’s a habit — like a clean git log or a well-pressed suit. You do it every time, or it means nothing.