# Three layers, and why they differ.

> The nest format specification and the escape-hatch script are Apache-2.0, and the ComfyUI plugin is GPL-3.0-or-later. The renest tool is published in full and broadly usable, but running a competing paid service on it is not granted, so it is source-available and we do not call it open source.

Canonical page: https://renest.ai/docs-licensing.html

<h2 id="open">The format specification and the escape hatch are Apache-2.0.</h2>

<p>The <a href="format-spec.html">nest format specification</a>, its JSON Schema, the
worked examples and the <a href="docs-escape-hatch.html">escape-hatch script</a> are
licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. Use, modify and redistribute them freely.</p>

<p>These are the parts that have to outlive us. A public format means your data is not a
black box, and the escape hatch means that when your bytes are somewhere you can reach,
you can rebuild without Renest installed, without an account and without a server of ours.
That only works if the licence puts no conditions on it. The licence text of the tool
itself says so directly: the escape hatch is Apache-2.0 and always will be. Each of these
parts carries its own copy of the Apache text.</p>

<h2 id="plugin">The ComfyUI plugin is GPL-3.0-or-later.</h2>

<p>The ComfyUI plugin runs inside the ComfyUI process, so it follows ComfyUI's licence:
GPL-3.0-or-later, with the full text alongside its code. We did not pick this licence for
the plugin; running inside ComfyUI decides it.</p>

<p>The plugin never imports the tool's code. It talks to the tool over loopback HTTP on
the same machine, so the process boundary is also the licence boundary. That is also why
the plugin stays a thin panel: the less it contains, the less there is to audit.</p>

<p>Separately, the Renest floor image we publish contains other people's software, some
of it under the GPL, LGPL or MPL. Our written offer for that source code is on the
<a href="docs-source-offer.html">source code offer</a> page.</p>

<h2 id="cli">The <code>renest</code> command-line tool is source-available, and it is not open-source software.</h2>

<p>The tool's code is published in full. It works on its own — no account, no card, and
it never asks a server of ours for permission to run. Its licence is the Renest CLI
Source-Available Licence, and the full text ships with the package as
<code>LICENSE-CLI</code>. In plain terms:</p>

<ul>
<li><strong>Broad use is granted.</strong> You may use, copy, modify and redistribute the
tool and works derived from it, for any purpose, with or without charge, including inside
a business. You may read the source, audit it, fork it, patch it, run your patched copy and
publish your modifications.</li>
<li><strong>One thing is withheld.</strong> You may not use the tool, or a work derived
from it, to provide third parties a commercial service that competes with the Renest
hosted service, or redistribute it for that purpose. The licence defines that as offering
storage, transfer, cataloguing or transfer of custody of machine environments or their
files, for a fee or as part of a paid product, where the tool provides a material part of
that offering.</li>
<li><strong>Plenty is explicitly not competing.</strong> Internal use inside an
organisation of any size, consulting or support where the customer runs the software
themselves, teaching, research, packaging it for a distribution, and building tools that
interoperate with it are all permitted.</li>
<li><strong>Individuals keep a permanent grant.</strong> Any individual may, permanently
and unconditionally, use the tool to pack, restore, verify and export their own data.
That permission does not depend on the Renest project or its operator continuing to exist,
on holding an account, or on an account being in good standing, and no later version of
the licence may narrow it for a copy you already have.</li>
</ul>

<p>Because of that one withheld use, the licence is source-available rather than open
source, and we do not use the term open source for the tool. The licence grants no rights
in the Renest trade mark.</p>

<h2 id="future">We make no promise that the tool's licence will change later.</h2>

<p>We do not promise that the source-available tool will move to an open-source licence at
any future date, and we would rather say that plainly than leave the question open. What
you can rely on is what is in force today, in the licence files themselves.</p>

<p>The hosted service at renest.ai is operated by the authors of this project. If this page
and a licence file ever disagree, the licence file is the authority. Where the tool's
licence and one of the Apache or GPL licences disagree about a file, that file's own
licence wins.</p>