AI slop: contribution gates that keep maintainer queues human
Unsolicited, low-effort pull requests burn maintainer attention on open projects, and AI made that volume cheaper to produce. This post starts from OWASP Nest queue pressure around mentorship seasons and the project's issue-first, assignment-before-code workflow. It then contrasts the archived check-pr-issue-action -- an assignee gate with an issue-link prerequisite -- with check-contribution-action's multi-check maintainer DX. The newer action adds selectable gates, selective auto-close, optional DCO and commit signatures, and safer wiring guidance for pull_request_target. Context also spans OWASP Nettacker and the Open World Holidays Framework, without pretending the bots can detect AI.
