# RavenClaws — Licensing
RavenClaws uses a **dual-license model**: open source for the community,
commercial for enterprise use.
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## Open Source Core — AGPLv3
The RavenClaws core is licensed under the
[GNU Affero General Public License v3.0](LICENSES/AGPLv3.txt) (AGPLv3).
This covers:
- Agent runtime and single-agent mode
- All LLM provider clients (LiteLLM, OpenRouter, Ollama, OpenAI)
- Unified provider trait and multi-model configuration
- Configuration loading and validation
- Security scaffolding (TLS enforcement, config hardening)
- Docker and Kubernetes deployment manifests
**AGPLv3 in plain English:**
- Free to use, modify, and distribute
- If you modify and run it as a service (SaaS), you must publish your modifications
- If you distribute it as part of a product, that product must also be AGPLv3
- Protects against cloud providers silently forking and offering as a managed service
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## Commercial License — Enterprise
A commercial license is required if you:
1. Use RavenClaws commercially with **>50 concurrent agents** and **>$5M revenue/year**
2. Distribute RavenClaws inside a product **without** releasing your source under AGPLv3
3. Offer RavenClaws as a **hosted/managed service** without releasing modifications
A commercial license grants:
- Usage rights without AGPLv3 obligations
- Access to enterprise-only features (see below)
- Priority support and SLA options
See [LICENSES/COMMERCIAL.txt](LICENSES/COMMERCIAL.txt) for full terms.
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## What Is Free vs. Commercial
| All LLM providers (LiteLLM, OpenRouter, Ollama, OpenAI) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Unified multi-provider API | ✅ | ✅ |
| Single-agent mode | ✅ | ✅ |
| Multi-model configuration | ✅ | ✅ |
| Configuration + validation | ✅ | ✅ |
| TLS enforcement + config hardening | ✅ | ✅ |
| Docker + Kubernetes manifests | ✅ | ✅ |
| Up to 50 agents, up to $5M revenue | ✅ | ✅ |
| **Swarm + supervisor orchestration at scale** | — | ✅ |
| **Multi-model routing (load balance, cost, fallback)** | — | ✅ |
| **RavenFabric integration (remote exec)** | — | ✅ |
| **RBAC + multi-tenant isolation** | — | ✅ |
| **SSO / SAML integration** | — | ✅ |
| **Compliance audit reporting** | — | ✅ |
| **Air-gap / offline license** | — | ✅ |
| **Priority support + SLA** | — | ✅ |
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## Why AGPLv3?
We chose AGPLv3 over MIT/Apache 2.0 deliberately:
**The SaaS loophole:** MIT and Apache 2.0 allow cloud providers to offer RavenClaws
as a managed service, fork it, add proprietary features, and never contribute back.
This happened to MongoDB (AWS DocumentDB), Elasticsearch (AWS OpenSearch), and
Redis. AGPLv3 closes this loophole — if you run it as a service, your modifications
must be open.
**We commit to the core staying open:** The agent runtime, LLM provider clients,
and configuration layers will remain AGPLv3 forever. We will not retroactively
relicense code already released under AGPLv3. Enterprise features that we build on
top may be commercial, but the foundation will not be.
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## Contributor License Agreement (CLA)
Contributors to RavenClaws must sign a Contributor License Agreement (CLA).
This allows us to offer the commercial license while accepting community contributions.
The CLA grants us the right to:
- Include your contribution in the AGPLv3 release
- Include your contribution in commercial releases
It does NOT transfer copyright ownership. You retain copyright over your contributions.