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Contributor License Agreement (CLA)

All external contributors must sign a Contributor License Agreement before any contribution can be merged into Knowledge Tree.

Why we require a CLA​

Knowledge Tree's mission is to build a healthy, open, and enduring knowledge graph — one that grows richer over time as more sources are ingested and more people contribute. Sustaining that mission requires funding: infrastructure costs, ongoing development, and the long-term maintenance that keeps a complex system stable and reliable.

The CLA enables us to offer commercial licensing and managed services alongside the open-source project. This is what makes the project financially sustainable. Without it, we would not be able to invest the resources needed to maintain and grow the knowledge graph at the scale it needs to reach.

What this means in practice:

  • The project stays open source. The full codebase is and will remain available under AGPL-3.0. Anyone can use, modify, and deploy it — including for commercial purposes — under the terms of that license.
  • Your contributions stay open source too. Every contribution merged into the repository is publicly available under the same AGPL-3.0 license. Nothing goes behind a paywall.
  • You keep your copyright. The CLA does not transfer ownership of your work. You retain full copyright over your contributions.
  • You grant us a broad license. The CLA grants us a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free license — including sublicensing rights — over your contributions. This allows us to offer the project under additional commercial terms (such as enterprise licenses or managed hosting) without needing to re-negotiate with every contributor.

This is the same model used by projects like Apache, Eclipse, and many others that balance open-source availability with long-term sustainability.

What the CLA covers​

The CLA includes:

  • Copyright license — You grant us the right to reproduce, distribute, sublicense, and create derivative works of your contributions.
  • Patent license — You grant a patent license covering any patents that your contribution necessarily infringes. This protects both the project and its users.
  • Representations — You confirm that your contribution is your original work and that you have the right to submit it.

How to sign​

Individuals​

  1. Read the full Individual CLA

  2. Open a pull request

  3. Comment on the PR with the exact text:

    I have read the CLA Document and I hereby sign the CLA

  4. Our CLA bot will record your signature and update the PR status

You only need to sign once — the bot remembers your signature for future PRs.

Organizations (Corporate CLA)​

If you are contributing on behalf of your employer or an organization, an authorized representative must sign the Corporate CLA by emailing [email protected] with:

  1. Corporation name and address
  2. Point of contact name and email
  3. List of authorized GitHub usernames (or "all employees")
  4. A statement that the representative has authority to enter the agreement

Individual employees covered by a Corporate CLA must still sign on their PRs as described above.

Frequently asked questions​

Can I still use my contribution in my own projects?​

Yes. You retain full copyright. The CLA is a non-exclusive license — you can use your code however you like.

Does the CLA change the open-source license?​

No. The project is and remains AGPL-3.0. The CLA grants additional rights to the project maintainers alongside the open-source license — it does not replace or restrict it.

What if I don't want to sign?​

Unsigned contributions cannot be merged. If you have concerns about the CLA terms, please open a discussion on GitHub — we're happy to talk through them.

What about small fixes (typos, docs)?​

All contributions require a CLA signature, regardless of size. The signing process is a one-time comment on a PR — it takes a few seconds.