Licensing
The terms, the trademark, and when you need a license.
The matrix specification, the upper ontology, the catalog, and the authoring tools ship under Apache 2.0. The RARS runtime ships under GPLv3. A commercial license is available for embedders, hyperscalers, and OEMs. The Matrix Registry and Poliglot Cloud are proprietary platform services. This page is the canonical reference; for the developer-facing summary, see Open Source.
§01
Per-artifact licenses
Each artifact, the license that fits it.
Specifications and shared substrate are permissive so the ecosystem can build freely. The reference runtime is copyleft so modifications either stay open or are licensed commercially. Hosted platform services are proprietary.
Matrix specification
Data model, schemas, and package format. The contract that makes a matrix portable across runtimes. Conformance suite is in development.
Upper ontology
The core vocabulary every matrix imports. Permissive so customer matrices stay unambiguously free.
Catalog
Connectors, reference matrices, and domain-level ontologies contributed by the community.
Registry protocol
The API contract the CLI speaks. Open so you can self-host private registries.
RARS runtime
The symbolic execution engine. Copyleft for community use; commercial license available for embedders, hyperscalers, and OEMs.
Matrix Registry (hosted)
Poliglot's public hub for matrices. Free for public matrices; paid tiers for private and organization use.
Proprietary
Poliglot Cloud
Hosted workspace, managed runtime, and the Managed Model Router.
Proprietary
§02
Why this shape
Three tiers, each chosen deliberately.
Open standard
Apache 2.0 for the spec, the ontology, the catalog, and the authoring tools.
Anyone can implement against the specification, embed the authoring tools, contribute to the catalog, or extend the upper ontology. Permissive licensing here is what makes customer-authored matrices unambiguously free of GPL contagion: matrices import vocabulary terms from the ontology, so the ontology must be permissive for those matrices to remain proprietary.
Open runtime
GPLv3, dual-licensed commercially.
The reference runtime is copyleft. Modifications that are redistributed must remain GPL-compatible. A commercial license is available for embedders, hyperscalers, OEMs, and enterprises who need to operate outside copyleft. The runtime's license does not affect customer matrices, which are data the runtime reads, not derivative works.
Commercial platform
The Matrix Registry and Poliglot Cloud are proprietary.
The hosted public registry, the managed runtime, the workspace, and the Managed Model Router are commercial Poliglot products. The registry protocol is open, so private internal registries can interoperate with the same authoring tools the public hub uses.
§03
When you need a license
What each common usage pattern requires.
The reference table below answers the practical question customers and partners ask first. If your scenario is not listed or is borderline, write to licensing@poliglot.io.
Run the runtime locally for development.
None. GPLv3 covers community use.
Author a proprietary matrix on top of the local runtime.
None. Matrices are data the runtime reads, not derivative works.
Publish a matrix to the public registry.
None.
Self-host a private registry inside a corporate network.
None. The registry protocol is open.
Deploy the runtime to internal production, unmodified.
None. GPLv3 covers community use.
Modify the runtime for internal use, with no external distribution.
None. GPL obligations attach on distribution, not internal use.
Embed the runtime in a closed product distributed to others.
Commercial license.
Offer a managed RARS service on a non-Poliglot cloud.
Commercial license.
Ship the runtime preinstalled on an appliance or vertical product.
Commercial license.
Build a third-party implementation against the open specification.
None for the implementation. Trademark license required to use the Poliglot or RARS name.
Fork the runtime under a different name and ship it as open source.
GPLv3 only. Modifications must remain GPL-compatible. Trademarks may not travel.
Contribute a connector or domain ontology to the catalog.
Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO). Corporate contributors sign a CLA.
Cite the architecture whitepaper in a book, talk, or course.
Apache 2.0 attribution.
§04
Trademark
Anyone can implement the spec. Only certified implementations carry the name.
Poliglot and RARS are trademarks of Poliglot Inc. Unmodified redistribution under the name is permitted. “Compatible with Poliglot” language for downstream projects is permitted. Calling a third-party implementation “RARS” requires a trademark license. Once the conformance program ships, that license will require passing the conformance suite; until then, trademark inquiries are handled directly by Poliglot Inc.
The conformance test suite is in development and has not yet been built or released. When published, it will ship under Apache 2.0 alongside the specification. A formal Certified RARS-Compatible program follows release of the suite — both are post-beta deliverables. Brand inquiries: brand@poliglot.io.
§05
Patents
Standard grants, scoped to the licensed software.
Poliglot Inc. holds no patents today. The license posture is forward-looking and matches the standard adopted by mature commercial open-source companies: standard patent grants in the open licenses, a contributor patent license in the CLA, and a commercial-license patent grant scoped to the licensed software with defensive termination.
- Open licenses. Apache 2.0 (spec, ontology, catalog, authoring tools, registry protocol) includes a broad, royalty-free patent grant from contributors to all downstream users. GPLv3 (runtime) includes a narrower but material grant. Both are relied upon as-is.
- Contributor License Agreement. Modeled on the Apache CLA. Every contributor grants Poliglot Inc. and downstream recipients a perpetual, royalty-free patent license under any of their patent claims that read on the contribution.
- Commercial license. Includes a patent grant from Poliglot Inc. to the licensee covering any patents owned or controlled by Poliglot that would, but for the license, be infringed by permitted use of the software. The grant terminates if the licensee initiates patent litigation against Poliglot or any other licensee alleging that the software infringes a patent.
Trade secrets remain in force for non-disclosed implementation details — registry infrastructure, model routing, operational specifics. Patents and trade secrets are complementary, not exclusive.
§06
Commercial license
What it grants. How to get it.
The commercial license grants the right to use, modify, and redistribute the RARS runtime outside of GPLv3 obligations. Terms are negotiated per engagement and cover the embedder, managed-service, OEM, and enterprise scenarios listed above.
Customers running the runtime locally and authoring proprietary matrices on top do not need a commercial license. The license is for parties whose use sits outside the GPL, not for end users of the runtime.