The same bits under two sets of terms.
Datris is open source under AGPL-3.0. A commercial license buys the part you can't fork: a clear license your legal team signs once, a company answerable for a production dependency, and a continuity commitment that survives us. This page is written for the general counsel, OSPO lead, or head of platform whose scanner just flagged AGPL.
1 · What AGPL means for you
The GNU Affero General Public License v3 is the GPL with one extra clause. Two sections matter for a Datris deployment.
Section 5, conveying modified versions. If you modify Datris and distribute the modified version to someone else, you must release your modifications under AGPL-3.0 and make the source available.
Section 13, remote network interaction. If you modify Datris and users interact with that modified version over a network, you must offer those users the corresponding source. This is the clause that distinguishes the AGPL from the GPL, and it is the clause scanners flag.
Running an unmodified Datris for your own organization's internal use, without offering it to outside users over a network, generally does not trigger §13. You are not conveying it, and you have not modified it. This is the most common deployment and it needs no commercial license to be compliant.
This page is a plain-English summary, not legal advice. The characterizations above should be reviewed by your counsel against your own deployment.
2 · Questions legal teams ask
Does exposing an MCP endpoint to my own employees count as "over a network"?
Section 13 applies to users interacting with a modified version over a network. Running an unmodified Datris for your own organization's internal use, where the people interacting with it are your own staff, is generally not the case §13 was written for. If you have modified Datris and expose it to users outside your organization, §13 is in play. When in doubt, a commercial license removes the question entirely.
Is my agent code a derivative work?
Your agent talks to Datris over MCP and REST. Code that calls a network API is, in the general view, not a derivative work of the server it calls. Taps you write and run inside Datris are your code. Modifications to the Datris platform itself are modifications under the AGPL.
What if I fork a tap or modify a preprocessor?
Taps and preprocessor scripts you author are yours. If you change platform source — the services, the MCP server, the UI — and convey that changed version or offer it to users over a network, the AGPL obligations on modified versions apply.
What if I run Datris for a client?
Operating Datris on behalf of a third party is the Hosted / SaaS case. Whether the AGPL obligations attach depends on whether you have modified it and how your client's users interact with it. A Hosted license is written for exactly this arrangement.
Does the commercial license cover third-party components like MongoDB or Vault?
No. The commercial license covers Datris. Third-party components keep their own licenses: MongoDB under SSPL, HashiCorp Vault under BSL, and the Apache projects under Apache-2.0. Datris runs against the community editions and does not require a commercial license for any of them in an internal-use deployment. Your counsel should confirm the third-party terms against your use.
What exactly changes under a commercial license?
The bits do not change. The terms do: you run, modify, embed, or host Datris without copyleft obligations, your modifications stay private, and you receive an IP warranty, indemnification, a named contact, advisories ahead of disclosure, an LTS branch, and a perpetual right to the versions delivered during your term.
3 · License types
Pick the row that describes how you will use Datris. Each is one sentence on purpose.
| License | What it lets you do | Who it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Internal Use | Run Datris inside your own organization with support, indemnity, and no copyleft question to answer. | A data team putting Datris into production behind the firewall. |
| Hosted / SaaS | Operate Datris as part of a service you offer to third parties over a network. | A consultancy or managed-service provider running Datris for clients. |
| OEM / Redistribution | Embed Datris inside your product and sublicense it to your customers. | An ISV shipping Datris as a component of something they sell. |
| Enterprise Source License | A perpetual license to the source: modify it, build on it, run it anywhere, keep your changes private. No right to sell or redistribute it. Datris retains ownership. | A large institution that wants to own its fork without the AGPL attached. |
4 · What every commercial license includes
Each of these is a row a vendor-risk reviewer can tick.
5 · Continuity Commitment
You are putting a small company's software into production. Here is what happens if the small company does not make it, stated first rather than when you ask.
- Perpetual, irrevocable license to every version delivered during your term. It survives termination of the agreement and the dissolution of IData Corporation.
- Conversion to perpetual at no cost if commercial support ever ceases.
- The AGPL fallback. The complete source is public today. A Datris deployment never stops running because a vendor did.
We do not offer source escrow. Escrow releases source you already have, in public, under the AGPL. The commitment above is stronger and it costs you nothing.
6 · Next step
Commercial licenses are annual subscriptions scoped to your deployment. Tell us the license type, the number of production deployments, and your timeline, and we will send a proposal within two business days. A copy of the commercial agreement is available on request with the proposal so your legal team can file it now.