Licensing

Fortemi is licensed under the Business Source License 1.1 (BSL 1.1) with a change date of February 16, 2030, after which it converts to AGPL v3 (GNU Affero General Public License).

This page explains what that means in plain English.

The Short Version

• Personal use is free. Always. No license key, no time bomb, no asterisks.
• Small teams, students, researchers, open-source folks — you're welcome here.
• Commercial/multi-user production deployments need a license. We keep pricing fair.
• Fully open source on February 16, 2030. Every version, automatically.

What You Can Do (No License Needed)

Use Fortemi freely for:

• Personal projects — your notes, your research, your ideas, your laptop
• Educational purposes — classes, coursework, teaching, academic research
• Evaluation — test it, benchmark it, see if it fits
• Desktop use — personal productivity, journaling, writing
• Development — fork it, modify it, experiment, contribute back
• Solo use at work — running it on your own machine for your own notes

No license required. No questions asked. No usage tracking.

What Requires a License

You need a commercial license if you:

• Deploy on shared infrastructure for multiple users in your organization
• Offer it as a service to customers (hosted knowledge base, SaaS)
• Embed it in a commercial product that you sell
• Run it in production as part of business operations for a team

The line is simple: one person on their own machine = free. Multiple users on shared servers = license.

FAQ

Can I use this for my personal notes?

Yes. That's exactly what it's for. Run it however you like — Docker, bare metal, your home server. It's free.

Can I use it at work on my laptop?

Yes. If it's just you using it on your own machine, that's personal use. No license needed, even if your notes are work-related.

I'm a student / researcher. Do I need a license?

No. Academic and educational use is free. Use it for your thesis, your lab, your research group.

Can I use this at my 6-person startup?

Yes — reach out to us. We want to support small teams and early-stage companies. Open an issue and we'll work out something affordable. We're not trying to price anyone out.

Can I deploy it for my 50-person company?

That needs a commercial license. But the process is simple — contact us and we'll get back to you within 2–3 business days.

Can I fork and modify the code?

Yes. Fork it, change it, improve it. Your modifications stay under BSL 1.1 (same terms). We'd love it if you contributed changes back.

When does it become fully open source?

February 16, 2030. On that date, every version of Fortemi — past, present, and future — automatically converts to AGPL v3. No more production restrictions for anyone.

Can I use this in a SaaS product?

Requires a commercial license. Hosting Fortemi (or a derivative) as a service for customers is production use.

Can I integrate my open-source project with Fortemi?

Yes. Your project can call Fortemi's API freely. If you embed/bundle Fortemi itself, your project needs to respect the BSL terms (or wait for the AGPL conversion in 2030).

What happens to my commercial license after 2030?

It stays valid. But after February 16, 2030, anyone can use Fortemi for production under AGPL v3 — so you might not need to renew.

Commercial Licensing

We keep things simple and fair.

Pricing Philosophy

We're a small project that wants to grow sustainably. Our licensing reflects that:

• Solo users and tiny teams — we'll find something that works for your budget
• Mid-size companies — fair per-seat pricing, nothing predatory
• Enterprise — custom agreements with the support you need

License Tiers

Tier	Who It's For	Cost
Personal	Solo users, students, researchers	Free
Small Team	Up to 10 users	Let's talk
Team	Up to 50 users, single deployment	Contact us
Enterprise	Unlimited users, multiple deployments	Contact us
OEM/Embedded	Bundle in your product	Contact us

All commercial licenses include:

• Production deployment rights
• Email support
• Bug fixes and security patches
• Upgrade rights to new versions

How to Get Started

Open an issue on GitHub or email us. Tell us:

• What you're building and roughly how many people will use it
• Whether you need self-hosted, cloud, or both

That's it. We'll respond within 2–3 business days with options.

Open Source Conversion

Change Date: February 16, 2030

On this date, Fortemi automatically converts from BSL 1.1 to AGPL v3:

• No more production restrictions — anyone can deploy for any purpose
• Full AGPL v3 freedoms — use, modify, distribute freely
• Copyleft requirement — derivatives must also be AGPL v3
• All versions included — past and future releases are AGPL v3

Why BSL + AGPL?

1. Sustainability — commercial licenses fund full-time development 2. Fairness — free for individuals, affordable for teams, licensed for large orgs 3. Guaranteed open source — the conversion date is baked into the license, not a promise 4. Anti-parasitic — large cloud providers can't take and resell without contributing back

What is AGPL v3?

The GNU Affero General Public License v3 is a copyleft open source license. It works like the GPL but also covers network use: if you run modified AGPL software as a web service, you must share your source code with users of that service.

Learn more: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html

License Files

The license files are in the repository root:

• `BSL-LICENSE` — BSL 1.1 terms (current license until Change Date)
• `LICENSE.txt` — AGPL v3 full text (takes effect after Change Date)

Key parameters:

• Licensor: Fortémi Project
• Licensed Work: Fortémi (all versions)
• Change Date: February 16, 2030
• Change License: AGPL v3
• Additional Use Grant: Non-production use is free

Summary

• Free for personal use — always, no catches
• Welcoming to small teams — reach out, we'll work with you
• Licensed for production — fair pricing for organizations
• Fully open source in 2030 — guaranteed by the license itself

Questions? Open an issue on GitHub.

See Also

• Release Process - How we version and release
• Architecture - Technical overview
• Contributing - How to contribute code