The name is ours
Redistribute it as salt.md and you are welcome to. If you fork it into something of your own, please give that something its own name. The licence covers the code, not the identity.
Licence
Free software. Including at work.
salt.md is published under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0. No fee, no separate licence, no conversation with us required. There is exactly one condition, and most people never touch it.
What you may do, and the one condition
What you may do
All of it, without asking anyone. Running salt.md unmodified for your own people asks nothing of you at all.
- Run it for yourself, your team or your whole company
- Use it commercially, internally, at any scale
- Modify it and run your modified version
- Self-host it on any hardware you like
- Hand a copy to a colleague or a client
- Read every line and audit what it does
The one condition
It applies only when both halves are true: you changed the code, and you let other people use that changed version over a network.
- Changed it, and others use it over a network → publish your changes
- Changed it, but only your own people use it → nothing to publish
- Did not change it → nothing to publish, ever
This is the whole of what the AGPL adds over the GPL. If you are unsure which row you are in, ask before you build: saltmd/salt.md/issues
The fine print, in plain words
Why this licence
Two goals in tension. salt.md should be in as many hands as possible, which rules out anything a legal review rejects on sight. The previous licence forbade all commercial use, including a company simply running it internally. That was exactly the wrong door to close.
What it still prevents
Handing a competitor a finished product to close up and sell. They may run it and they may charge for it. Closing it is the part the licence does not allow. Their version has to be as open as this one, which removes the incentive without shutting anybody out.
What lives elsewhere
Anything built on top, such as hosted convenience or assistant features, lives in its own repository under its own terms. The core stays free software.
No warranty
salt.md comes with no warranty, to the extent permitted by law.
This page is a summary.
The licence text governs. Where this page and the GNU AGPL v3.0 disagree, the licence wins. Copyright © 2026 Jeremia Arslan.