Licences

Status: accepted, 2026-10-19

Context

Knode wants as many people as possible to use it, change it and build on it, while nobody else can present themselves as Knode. For a new project the real risk is being unknown, not being copied, and what protects it from copies is the brand and being the official, maintained version, not a restrictive licence. Fewer licences are also easier to understand.

Decision

Two licences, nothing else.

What	Licence
Everything in the repositories: code, docs, the .knode format and its libraries	Apache 2.0
The brand: the names Knode and .knode, logo, app icon, icons, Knode Block and Knode Line	Knode Brand License, all rights reserved

• Apache 2.0 rather than MIT: just as free, and better for us. Every copy must keep the NOTICE ("Knode, a project by aaangelmartin") and mark what it changed; it grants patents from every contributor; and it says outright that it gives no rights to the name or logo.
• Rather than AGPL or MPL: they would force forks to publish their changes, but they put off companies and contributors and complicate the App Store. Visibility matters more now.
• No CLA: with Apache 2.0, contributions come in under the same licence (section 5), which is enough to ship Knode anywhere, the App Store included.

Consequences

• Every repository has the Apache 2.0 text in LICENSE and a NOTICE crediting Knode.
• Brand files (logo, icons, fonts) carry the Knode Brand License wherever they ship.
• A fork may use, change and even sell the code, but under its own name and logo, crediting Knode.
• Supersedes the MIT licence of web and .github, and CC BY 4.0 and OFL for the brand and docs.