Free software. Copyleft on purpose.
Trove KB is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0. Free to self-host, free for commercial use, free to fork. Run a modified version for other people and you share the source with them.
You can
-
Self-host for yourself or your clients
Run Trove KB on your VPS, your homelab, or a box in the office. No license fee, no seat cap, no expiration. Commercial use, including documenting paying clients as an MSP, is fully permitted.
-
Fork it, modify it, audit it
The source is on GitHub under AGPL-3.0. Read it, patch it, run your patched build.
-
Offer it as a service
You may host Trove KB for others. Section 13 of the AGPL asks one thing in return: the people using it over the network must be able to get the source of the version they are using, modifications included.
-
Rebrand the portal
Admin → Branding sets the name, logo, and accent, and the "Powered by" credit can be turned off. The license notice and the link to the source stay, because §13 is not an operator's to remove.
You must
-
Share modifications you deploy for others
If you change Trove KB and let other people use it over a network, offer them the modified source. Internal use with no outside users carries no such duty.
-
Keep the license
Redistribute under AGPL-3.0 with the notices intact. You cannot relicense it as proprietary.
This page is a plain-language summary, not legal advice. The license text governs. Questions: [email protected].
Questions people ask
Is this open source? ›
Yes, in the OSI sense. The GNU Affero General Public License v3 is an approved open-source license. It is a copyleft license, which is the part some people mind: improvements you deploy for others have to be shared back.
Why AGPL and not MIT or Apache? ›
Because the product's value is in being run as a service, and the AGPL is the license that keeps the service honest. A hosting company that improves Trove KB and runs it for customers has to publish those improvements. A permissive license would let the code be taken private the moment it was useful.
Can my MSP use it to document paying clients? ›
Yes. Using Trove KB internally, including to serve your clients, is ordinary use. The network clause only applies when the people interacting with the software are the ones who need the source, and your clients are not interacting with Trove KB; your technicians are. Giving clients read access to their own documentation does not change what you owe: you are running the unmodified software, and its source is already public.
What if I run a modified version? ›
Then the people using it over the network must be able to get the modified source. The simplest way is to keep your fork public on GitHub and point the footer at it. The footer already carries a source link for exactly this reason.
Can I contribute? ›
Pull requests are welcome. Contributions need a Developer Certificate of Origin sign-off (git commit -s), which says you have the right to contribute the code under the project's license. No copyright assignment.
What about the marketing site? ›
This website's code, copy, design, and brand assets are © Hearne Technologies and are not part of the AGPL grant. The repository is public for transparency. The application is what is licensed.