As a developer, I love open source. I think it’s the backbone of innovation, collaboration, and community-driven progress. But if you’re a small team or a startup, sharing your work as open source comes with risks. Big risks.
When we started building Pythagora in 2023., it was one of the first agentic systems where AI agents work together to create entire codebases - so, we wanted to share it with the world by showing and inspiring others to build complex systems. However, we knew we needed to protect our innovation from being exploited by larger companies.
In this post, I’ll share the challenges we faced while choosing a license, why traditional open-source licenses didn’t work for us, and how we found a solution in the Functional Source License (FSL). If you’ve ever struggled to balance openness with sustainability, this is for you.
The Challenge of Open-Source Licensing
When we started in 2023, we were excited to share our work. Open source had always been part of our DNA, but we had to pause and ask ourselves tough questions:
- How do we protect our code from being rebranded and commercialized by big companies?
- Which license encourages collaboration without compromising sustainability?
- Can we avoid complex, overly restrictive hybrid licenses? We’ve all seen stories like Elasticsearch vs. Amazon. It’s a cautionary tale for smaller teams and startups using permissive licenses. Initially, we tried GPL, but it felt too restrictive. Licenses like MIT and Apache were too permissive. What we needed was something fair, balanced, and protective.
Why We Chose Sentry & Functional Source License (FSL)
After exploring different licensing options, we came across the Functional Source License (FSL) from Sentry. It’s part of the growing Fair Source movement, which empowers companies to share their core technology responsibly without losing control of their roadmap or innovation.
Here’s why FSL was the perfect fit for us:
1. Two-Year Grace Period
The FSL gives us a two-year buffer where our code is free to explore, use, and modify—but competitors can’t commercialize it. By the time the grace period ends, we’ll have evolved far beyond the initial release, ensuring we stay ahead.
2. Transparency Without Exploitation
With FSL, anyone can:
- Read our code.
- Use, modify, and share it under simple conditions.
- But here’s the key condition: you can’t directly compete with the project.
3. Simplicity
Unlike some licenses that require legal expertise to interpret, FSL is simple and accessible. It strikes the perfect balance for startups like us: encouraging collaboration while protecting our work.
How FSL Works for Startups
For a startup like Pythagora, the Functional Source License is a game-changer. It allows us to:
- Share Our Innovation: Developers can freely explore and build on our work.
- Prevent Exploitation: We remain protected from big players who might otherwise rebrand and sell our code.
- Foster Collaboration: The simplicity of FSL fosters trust and community engagement.
By adopting FSL, we’re aligning with the values of open source while addressing the realities of being a small team in a competitive landscape.
What This Means for Developers
If you’re a developer exploring GPT Pilot, here’s what FSL means for you:
- Transparency: You can freely read our code and understand how it works.
- Flexibility: You can use, modify, and share GPT Pilot with minimal restrictions. & Fairness: The two-year grace period ensures we can continue to innovate while giving back to the community.
Licensing is one of the hardest decisions for open-source startups, but the Functional Source License (FSL) has allowed us to share our work responsibly while protecting it from exploitation.
We hope our experience inspires other startups to explore Fair Source licensing as a way to balance openness, sustainability, and collaboration.
If you’re curious about GPT Pilot, check out our blog post or explore the codebase.
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