ADR-0006 — AGPLv3 license

• Status: Accepted
• Date: 2026-07-11

Context

The license decides whether the codebase can be enclosed. A privacy project's worst failure mode is becoming the engine of a proprietary, telemetry-laden fork.

Decision

GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 for the entire repository.

Alternatives considered

• MIT/Apache-2.0 dual: maximum adoption, Rust-ecosystem default — and explicit permission for closed, surveillance-friendly forks. Rejected on mission grounds.
• MPL-2.0: file-level copyleft middle ground; still allows the app around the core to be closed and hostile.
• GPLv3: strong copyleft, but the network-service loophole matters here: relays and gateways are services, and AGPL's remote-interaction clause is exactly the coverage a serverless-but-relayed architecture needs.

Consequences

Anyone running a modified relay/gateway/client must publish source; the codebase stays open by force of law (Signal precedent shows AGPL does not prevent adoption of a messenger). Some corporate contributors will abstain — acceptable. Library reuse in proprietary apps is foreclosed; that is the point, not a bug.