k8s-inspector

k8s-inspector 2.0 — Licensing

k8s-inspector uses a dual-license model: open source for the community, commercial for enterprise use.

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Open Source Core — AGPLv3

The k8s-inspector core is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPLv3).

This covers:

• The FastAPI Backend and Next.js Dashboard
• Cost Optimization Engine (Waste detection, rightsizing)
• Security Compliance Analyzer (CIS, PSS, RBAC)
• ML Performance & Anomaly Detection
• Playbook Auto-Remediation Engine
• Single-tenant monitoring and insights

AGPLv3 in plain English:

• Free to use, modify, and distribute
• If you modify and run it as a service (SaaS), you must publish your modifications
• If you distribute it as part of a product, that product must also be AGPLv3
• Protects against cloud providers silently forking and offering as managed service

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Commercial License — Enterprise

A commercial license is required if you:

1. Use k8s-inspector commercially with >5 managed clusters and >$5M revenue/year
2. Distribute k8s-inspector inside a product without releasing your source under AGPLv3
3. Offer k8s-inspector as a hosted/managed service without releasing modifications

A commercial license grants:

• Usage rights without AGPLv3 obligations
• Access to enterprise-only features (see below)
• Priority support and SLA options

See LICENSES/COMMERCIAL.txt for full terms. Contact: hello@k8s-inspector.dev or open an issue.

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What Is Free vs. Commercial

Feature	AGPLv3 (Free)	Commercial
Next.js Real-time Dashboard	✅	✅
AI-Powered Root Cause Analysis	✅	✅
Intelligent Cost Optimization	✅	✅
Predictive Failure Detection	✅	✅
Security Compliance (CIS, PSS)	✅	✅
Playbook Auto-Remediation	✅	✅
Multi-cluster Federated View	✅	✅
Up to 5 clusters, up to $5M revenue	✅	✅
RBAC + Multi-tenant isolation	—	✅
Enterprise SSO / SAML integration	—	✅
Advanced Compliance Audit Reporting	—	✅
GitOps Drift Detection & Auto-PRs	—	✅
Predictive Capacity Planning	—	✅
Air-gap / offline license	—	✅
Priority support + SLA	—	✅

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Why AGPLv3?

We chose AGPLv3 over MIT/Apache 2.0 deliberately:

The SaaS loophole: MIT and Apache 2.0 allow cloud providers to offer k8s-inspector as a managed service, fork it, add proprietary features, and never contribute back. AGPLv3 closes this loophole — if you run it as a service, your modifications must be open.

We commit to the core staying open: The core analysis engines and remediation workflows will remain AGPLv3 forever. Enterprise features that we build on top may be commercial, but the foundation will not be.

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Contributor License Agreement (CLA)

Contributors to k8s-inspector must sign a Contributor License Agreement (CLA). This allows us to offer the commercial license while accepting community contributions.

The CLA grants us the right to:

• Include your contribution in the AGPLv3 release
• Include your contribution in commercial releases

It does NOT transfer copyright ownership. You retain copyright over your contributions.

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Questions?

Open an issue: https://github.com/egkristi/k8s-inspector/issues
Email: hello@k8s-inspector.dev