Licensing

The short version

Gryt is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0). Here's what that means in plain English:

You can:

Use Gryt for free for personal, educational, or non-commercial purposes
Self-host your own Gryt instance
Read, study, and learn from the source code
Modify the code to fit your needs
Share your modified version with others

You must:

Share any changes you make to Gryt under the same AGPL-3.0 license
If you run a modified version of Gryt as a public service (e.g. a hosted platform), you must make your modified source code available to your users
Keep the copyright notices and license intact

You cannot:

Take Gryt's code, make it closed-source, and sell it
Run a commercial service based on Gryt without either following the AGPL-3.0 terms or purchasing a commercial license

We love open source. We want everyone to be able to use, study, and improve Gryt. But we also want to make sure that if someone builds a business on top of our work, they either contribute back to the community or support the project financially.

The AGPL-3.0 protects the project by ensuring:

No closed-source forks — If someone modifies Gryt and distributes it, those modifications must stay open source.
No free-riding SaaS — If someone runs a modified Gryt as a hosted service, they must share their changes. This prevents companies from taking the code, adding features behind closed doors, and competing with the community project.
Patent protection — Contributors automatically grant a patent license, so users don't have to worry about patent claims.

Commercial use

If you're a company and you want to:

Use Gryt in a commercial product
Offer Gryt as a hosted service without open-sourcing your infrastructure
Embed Gryt into proprietary software

You'll need a commercial license. This is a separate agreement that removes the AGPL-3.0 obligations.

Reach out at [email protected] to discuss commercial licensing.

Contributing

When you contribute to Gryt (e.g. by submitting a pull request), your contribution is licensed under the same AGPL-3.0 terms. This keeps things simple and ensures the whole project stays under one consistent license.

Common questions

Can I self-host Gryt for my team at work?

Yes, as long as you follow the AGPL-3.0 terms. If you modify the code, you need to make those modifications available under the same license. If you're using it unmodified, you're good to go.

Can I build a product that uses Gryt?

If your product is also open source under a compatible license, absolutely. If your product is closed-source or commercial, you'll need a commercial license.

Does this affect plugins or themes I build?

It depends on how tightly integrated they are. Standalone plugins that communicate through a public API are generally fine. Code that directly modifies or extends Gryt's internals would fall under the AGPL-3.0. When in doubt, ask us.

I just want to use Gryt with my friends. Do I need to worry about any of this?

Nope. Self-host it, use it, have fun. The license only matters when you start distributing modified versions or running it as a commercial service.

Full license text

The complete AGPL-3.0 license is available in the LICENSE file in the repository.