License & Terms

Overview

GAT (Grid Analysis Toolkit) is licensed under the PolyForm Shield License 1.0.0, a source-available license that permits free use for non-commercial purposes while protecting the project from competitive commercial exploitation.

What You Can Do (Free)

• ✅ Academic Research - Use GAT for research, thesis work, and publications
• ✅ Personal Projects - Build tools and applications for personal use
• ✅ Internal Business Use - Use GAT internally within your organization
• ✅ Open Source Development - Contribute to GAT or use it in open-source projects
• ✅ Education - Teaching, training, and learning power systems analysis
• ✅ Prototyping - Building proof-of-concepts and MVPs

What Requires a Commercial License

• ❌ Selling Access - Offering GAT as a paid product or service
• ❌ Hosted Services - Running GAT as a cloud/SaaS offering for customers
• ❌ Competitive Products - Building commercial products that compete with GAT
• ❌ Paid Integration - Bundling GAT into commercial software for sale
• ❌ Consulting Services - Using GAT to provide paid professional services

License Details

PolyForm Shield License 1.0.0

Licensor: Tom Wilson Licensed Work: "GAT" (Grid Analysis Toolkit) Effective Date: 2025-10-18

Acceptance

By using the Licensed Work, you agree to the terms of this license.

Copyright

The Licensor grants you a copyright license to the Licensed Work under the terms and conditions of this license.

Noncommercial Use

You may use the Licensed Work for any purpose other than a Commercial Purpose.

"Commercial Purpose" means the sale, lease, or offering of the Licensed Work to third parties as a paid product or paid service, including but not limited to:

• Selling access to the Licensed Work
• Offering hosted or cloud versions of the Licensed Work
• Integrating the Licensed Work into a paid product or service
• Using the Licensed Work to provide commercial consulting, support, or professional services

Shield Provision

You may not use the Licensed Work to:

• Create, build, train, provision, run, or otherwise provide a product or service that competes with or substitutes for the Licensed Work or any paid or commercial version provided by the Licensor
• Provide any product, service, or hosted offering that exposes the functionality of the Licensed Work to third parties

Why This License?

This licensing approach allows GAT to:

1. Support Open Research - Academic and personal use remains completely free
2. Enable Innovation - Anyone can experiment, learn, and build
3. Sustain Development - Commercial users fund ongoing development and maintenance
4. Prevent Exploitation - Protects against commercial competitors who don't contribute back
5. Maintain Quality - Revenue from commercial licensing supports full-time development

Commercial Licensing

If your use case requires a commercial license, we offer:

• Startup License - Affordable pricing for early-stage companies
• Enterprise License - Full commercial rights with support
• OEM License - Bundle GAT into your commercial products
• Custom Licensing - Tailored agreements for specific needs

Get a Commercial License

Contact us to discuss commercial licensing:

• Email: Contact through GitHub Issues
• GitHub: https://github.com/monistowl/gat

We work with startups and enterprises to find licensing that fits your budget and use case.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use GAT at my company?

Yes, if:

• You're using it internally for your own analysis
• You're not selling access to GAT or GAT-powered services
• You're not competing with GAT's commercial offerings

You need a license if:

• You want to offer GAT as a service to customers
• You're building a competing commercial product
• You're selling consulting services powered by GAT

Can I contribute to GAT?

Yes! Contributions are welcome and encouraged. By contributing, you agree that your contributions will be licensed under the same PolyForm Shield License.

See our Contributing Guide for details.

Can I fork GAT?

Yes, for personal or non-commercial use. However, you cannot use a fork to create a competing commercial product or service.

What about academic publications?

Completely free. Academic research, teaching, and publications are non-commercial uses covered by the license.

Can I use GAT in open-source projects?

Yes, as long as the resulting project is also non-commercial. If you want to use GAT in a commercial open-source product, contact us for licensing.

Full License Text

The complete PolyForm Shield License 1.0.0 text is available at:

Repository: LICENSE.txt

Summary

Questions? Open an issue on GitHub.