diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index 3288444b73..b3e7fa645f 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -36,7 +36,8 @@ excited to:
   a request for time and attention from Zulip’s maintainers. Successful
   contributors put in the reasoning and writing effort required to
   [communicate][how we communicate] clearly and succinctly, and don’t waste the
-  community’s time with AI slop.
+  community’s time with AI slop. See our [AI use policy and
+  guidelines](#ai-use-policy-and-guidelines).
 - **Communicate in the open.** Technical and product decisions are discussed
   openly in the [Zulip development
   community](https://zulip.com/development-community/) and [on
@@ -64,12 +65,13 @@ your first pull request, diving into [Zulip's
 subsystems](https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/latest/subsystems/index.html), and
 much more. We hope you'll find this process to be a great learning experience.
 
-This page will guide you through the following steps:
+This page will guide you through the following topics:
 
 1. [Getting started](#getting-started)
 1. [Finding an issue to work on](#finding-an-issue-to-work-on)
 1. [Getting help](#getting-help) as you work on your first pull request
 1. Learning [best practices](#best-practices)
+1. [AI use policy and guidelines](#ai-use-policy-and-guidelines)
 1. [Submitting a pull request](#submitting-a-pull-request)
 1. [Going beyond the first issue](#beyond-the-first-issue)
 
@@ -336,6 +338,82 @@ to keep in mind.
 
 [great-questions]: https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/latest/contributing/asking-great-questions.html
 
+## AI use policy and guidelines
+
+Our goal in the Zulip project is to develop an excellent software
+system. This requires careful attention to detail in every change we
+integrate. Maintainer time and attention is very limited, so it's
+important that changes that contributors ask us to review represent
+that contributor's best work.
+
+Contributors are encouraged to use tools that help them write good
+code, including AI tools. However, as noted above, you always need to
+understand and explain the changes you're proposing to make, whether
+or not you used an LLM as part of your process to produce them. The
+answer to “Why did you make change X?” should never be “I'm not sure.
+The AI did it.”
+
+**Do not submit an AI-generated PR you haven't personally understood and
+tested**, as this wastes maintainers' time. PRs that appear to violate this
+guideline will be closed without review.
+
+### Using AI as a coding assistant
+
+1. Don't skip **becoming familiar with the part of the codebase**
+   you're working on. This will let you write better prompts and
+   validate their output if you use an LLM. Code assistants can be a
+   useful search engine/discovery tool in this process, but don't
+   trust claims they make about how Zulip works. LLMs are often wrong,
+   even about details that are clearly answered in the Zulip
+   documentation.
+1. Don't submit a bunch of LLM-proposed changes that easily reviewed
+   together as a single commit. Split up your changes into **[coherent
+   commits](https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/latest/contributing/commit-discipline.html)**.
+1. Don't simply ask an LLM to add **code comments**, as it will likely
+   produce a bunch of text that unnecessarily explains what's already
+   clear from the code. If using an LLM to generate comments, be
+   really specific in your request, demand succinctness, and carefully
+   edit the result.
+
+### Using AI for communication
+
+As noted above, Zulip's contributors are expected to communicate with
+intention, to avoid wasting maintainer time with long, sloppy
+writing. We strongly prefer clear and concise communication about
+points that actually require discussion over long AI-generated
+comments.
+
+When you use an LLM to write a message for you, it remains **your
+responsibility** to read through the whole thing and make sure it
+makes sense to you and it represents your ideas concisely. A good rule
+of thumb is that if you can't make yourself carefully read a given LLM
+output that you generated, nobody else wants to read it either.
+
+Here are some concrete guidelines for using LLMs as part of your communication
+workflows.
+
+1. When writing a pull request description, **do not include anything that's
+   obvious** from looking at your changes directly (e.g., files changed, functions
+   updated, etc.). Instead, focus on the _why_ behind your changes. Don't ask an
+   LLM to generate a PR description on your behalf based on your code changes,
+   as it will simply regurgitate the information that's already there.
+1. Similarly, when responding to a pull request comment, **explain _your_
+   reasoning**. Don't prompt an LLM to re-describe what can already be seen from
+   the code.
+1. Complete all parts of the **PR description template**, including screenshots
+   and the self-review checklist. Don't simply overwrite the template with LLM
+   output.
+1. **Clarity and succinctness** are much more important than perfect grammar, so
+   you shouldn't feel obliged to pass your writing through an LLM. If you do ask
+   an LLM to clean up your writing style, be sure it does _not_ make it longer
+   in the process. Demand succinctness in your prompt.
+1. Quoting an LLM answer is usually less helpful than linking to
+   **relevant primary sources**, like source code, reference
+   documentation or web standards. If you do need to quote an LLM
+   answer in a Zulip conversation, put the answer in a [Zulip quote
+   block](https://zulip.com/help/format-a-quote), to distinguish LLM
+   output from your own thoughts.
+
 ## Submitting a pull request
 
 See the [guide on submitting a pull