diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 43b57b8a7..c8020d718 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -11,6 +11,18 @@ An experimental branch of DLU, kept rebased on `main`. Besides everything in `ma
 feature that changes gameplay or live data is off by default or matches live behaviour unless noted, and each has its
 own documentation in [docs/](docs/).
 
+### AI usage
+Much of this branch was written with an AI coding assistant (Anthropic's Claude), working under the maintainer's
+direction. Commits it helped write carry a `Co-Authored-By: Claude` line. The maintainer reviews that code before it is
+proposed for `main`, and it goes through the project's normal review like any other contribution; nothing from this
+branch reaches `main` without that. Findings about the game client come from the client itself in Ghidra, checked
+against packet captures where possible, not from the assistant's memory.
+
+The server uses AI in exactly one place: the dashboard's optional moderator helper, which drafts a suggested action
+for staff on a player report, chat messages, a pending name or an economy flag. It is only a draft; staff decide and act
+(off by default, needs an API key; see "AI moderator helper" in [docs/Dashboard.md](docs/Dashboard.md)). Nothing
+players see or talk to in the game is generated by AI.
+
 ### Web dashboard (`DashboardServer`)
 A web dashboard for running and moderating a server, started and supervised by master like the other servers. See
 [docs/Dashboard.md](docs/Dashboard.md).