Open source
An OSI-approved license and a complete product you can self-host
The cloud funds development — hosting, capacity, and team controls. Core Git features are the same everywhere, and self-hosters get the complete product.
Platform core
AGPL-3.0-only
CLI and SDK
Apache-2.0
Contribution model
DCO sign-off
What we commit to
Five commitments that decide how this project is licensed, governed, and distributed.
AGPL-3.0 core
The platform core is licensed AGPL-3.0-only, an OSI-approved license. Anyone can run it, modify it, and offer it as a service, provided they share their changes under the same terms.
Apache-2.0 CLI and SDK
The CLI and SDK packages are Apache-2.0 so they can be embedded in any project, commercial or otherwise, without copyleft concerns.
Self-host with Docker Compose
Self-hosting works from source and Docker Compose today. Self-hosters get the complete product — all Git features, Simple and Developer Mode, the Vault, and the AI assistant with your own provider key. Cloud plan limits do not apply. A polished installer is a v1.0 goal.
No CLA — DCO instead
Contributors sign off commits under the Developer Certificate of Origin. We don't ask anyone to sign over rights, and we can't relicense your work out from under you.
Trademark policy
The code is free; the name identifies our builds. A plain-English trademark policy explains how forks and self-hosted installations may use the Keelson name.
The pledge
We will never call source-available “open source.”
If we ever ship something under a license the OSI wouldn’t approve, we’ll say so plainly. Open source is a definition, not a marketing word — and the trust of self-hosters and contributors is worth more to this project than any licensing trick.
Prefer not to run servers? The managed cloud funds the project.
Same product, plus hosting, operations, and billing.