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RFC 406i: The Emerging Open Source Standard Protocol to Reject AI-Generated Pull Requests

Canopy DevTools

Developer community site 406.fail has published a satirical but technically structured "RFC 406i" proposing a standard protocol for handling and discarding AI-generated ("slop") contributions submitted to source code repositories, issue trackers, vulnerability portals, and forums. The document, which gained 51 Hacker News points, formalizes a growing informal practice among open-source maintainers who paste the URL when closing AI-generated PRs, issues, or bug bounty submissions. The RFC includes canonical rejection macros for different venue types — PRs, bug reports, security disclosures, and mailing lists — and references a maintainer community in #406 on Libera.Chat.

Key Takeaways

  • RFC 406i defines a standard human-readable rejection response for AI-generated contributions; maintainers paste https://406.fail as a canonical, self-documenting closure reason
  • Includes venue-specific rejection macros for: pull requests, issue/bug reports, security/bug bounty submissions, and mailing list/forum posts
  • Community around the standard at #406 on Libera.Chat; RFC 406i gained 51 HN points and 10 comments as of March 5, 2026

Original source: 406.fail / Hacker News