License the repository under AGPL-3.0-or-later

AGENTS.md

@@ -94,6 +94,15 @@ confirms the platform layer loads and constructs. What has never happened is a p
 holding the key and speaking into a microphone. Describe it that way — not as "working",
 not as "unfinished".
 
+## Licence
+
+AGPL-3.0-or-later (`LICENSE`). Every file you add here inherits it — no per-file header
+is required, and none should be added unless the whole tree gets them. Before pulling in
+a new dependency, check it is not GPL-incompatible and not source-available-but-not-open
+(BSL, SSPL, Elastic, "free for non-commercial"): every current dependency is BSD, MIT,
+Apache-2.0, ISC or OFL, and `THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md` is the inventory to update when that
+changes. Models are downloaded at runtime, not distributed, and keep their own terms.
+
 ---
 
 ## The one rule that matters

Makefile

@@ -137,6 +137,10 @@ app: build
 	@# script; the app falls back to a one-line equivalent when running outside a bundle.
 	@cp Resources/install-gws.sh "$(CONTENTS)/Resources/"
 	@cp Sources/SpeexEcho/LICENSE "$(CONTENTS)/Resources/SpeexDSP-LICENSE.txt"
+	@# The app's own licence travels inside the bundle: an AGPL binary has to be able to
+	@# point whoever received it at the terms it came under.
+	@cp LICENSE "$(CONTENTS)/Resources/LICENSE.txt"
+	@cp THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md "$(CONTENTS)/Resources/THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md"
 	@chmod +x "$(CONTENTS)/Resources/install-gws.sh"
 	@printf 'APPL????' > "$(CONTENTS)/PkgInfo"
 	@# Belt and braces: the staging dir isn't synced, but the copied binary can still carry

README.md

@@ -6,6 +6,9 @@ or follow through. A Wispr Flow-shaped native app with on-device defaults and op
 
 ![Next Notes turning a spoken false start into a finished sentence](site/public/demo-dictation.gif)
 
+**Free software, [AGPL-3.0-or-later](LICENSE).** Read it, build it, fork it — modified
+versions stay open, including ones run as a service. See [License](#license).
+
 **Status:** the macOS app is in daily use. It supports Apple and Parakeet transcription,
 deterministic or on-device LLM cleanup, per-app output formatting, personal dictionary bias
 and corrections, and an opt-in voice Command Mode for editing selected text. Dictated text
@@ -945,3 +948,35 @@ faithfully they implement it. The implementation refuses to replace text when th
 selection cannot be revalidated.
 
 > `log` is shadowed in this shell — use `/usr/bin/log` explicitly or it returns nothing.
+
+---
+
+## License
+
+Next Notes is free software under the **GNU Affero General Public License, version 3 or
+later** ([`LICENSE`](LICENSE), SPDX `AGPL-3.0-or-later`). Copyright © 2026 Serge Kadjo.
+
+Read it, build it, run it, change it, and ship your changes — the one condition is that the
+changes stay as free as what they started from:
+
+- **Using it** — privately, at work, on as many Macs as you like — costs nothing and obliges
+  nothing. Local use is not distribution.
+- **Distributing it**, modified or not, means handing over the corresponding source under
+  this same licence: a DMG you hand someone, a fork you publish, a product you build on top.
+- **Running a modified version as a network service** means the same thing, to the people
+  using that service. That is the Affero clause, and it is the reason this is AGPL rather
+  than plain GPL: a hosted transcription or meeting-notes product built on this code owes
+  its users the source, exactly as a downloadable one does.
+- **Your own recordings, transcripts and notes are yours.** The licence covers the program,
+  never its output.
+
+The AGPL does not require you to publish anything you never hand to anyone else, and it does
+not reach the separate programs Next Notes merely talks to — a coding CLI over ACP, an MCP
+server, `gws`, OpenRouter.
+
+**Contributions** are accepted under the same licence: open a pull request and you are
+licensing that work under AGPL-3.0-or-later, with copyright staying yours. No CLA.
+
+Third-party code bundled or linked here is permissive (BSD, MIT, Apache-2.0, ISC, OFL) and
+compatible in this direction — see [`THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md`](THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md).
+Models are downloaded at runtime under their own terms and are not covered by this licence.

Resources/Info.plist

@@ -17,6 +17,10 @@
 	     come back, and `AppIdentity` folds the old `ai.pivotstudio.speechify` defaults in. -->
 	<key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>
 	<string>ai.pivotstudio.nextnotes</string>
+	<!-- Shown in the About panel and in Finder's Get Info. AGPL-3.0-or-later: the full
+	     text ships beside it as Resources/LICENSE.txt. -->
+	<key>NSHumanReadableCopyright</key>
+	<string>Copyright © 2026 Serge Kadjo. Licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later.</string>
 	<key>CFBundlePackageType</key>
 	<string>APPL</string>
 	<key>CFBundleShortVersionString</key>

THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md

@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+# Third-party notices
+
+Next Notes is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later
+(see [`LICENSE`](LICENSE)). Everything it vendors, links, or bundles is under a
+permissive licence that is one-way compatible with the AGPL, so the combined work
+can be — and is — distributed under the AGPL. Nothing here imposes a term the AGPL
+does not already satisfy beyond the attribution notices reproduced below.
+
+The vendored copies carry their own licence files inside the tree; those files are
+authoritative and are shipped inside the built `.app`.
+
+## Vendored source (in this repository)
+
+| Component | Where | Licence |
+|---|---|---|
+| Xiph SpeexDSP (acoustic echo canceller) | `Sources/SpeexEcho/` | BSD 3-Clause — `Sources/SpeexEcho/LICENSE` |
+| Thinking orbs animation (Jakub Antalik) | `Sources/NextNotes/UI/Components/ThinkingOrbs/` | MIT — that directory's `LICENSE` |
+| WebRTC audio processing bridge sources | `Vendor/WebRTCAudio/NextNotesAEC.{h,cpp}` | Part of Next Notes, AGPL-3.0-or-later |
+
+## Built and bundled at package time
+
+`Tools/build-webrtc-audio.sh` builds these from pinned, hash-verified sources; `make app`
+copies their licence files into `Next Notes.app/Contents/Resources/WebRTCAudio/`.
+
+| Component | Licence |
+|---|---|
+| Freedesktop `webrtc-audio-processing` 2.1 | BSD 3-Clause — `Vendor/WebRTCAudio/WEBRTC-AUDIO-PROCESSING-LICENSE` |
+| WebRTC (upstream) | BSD 3-Clause + patent grant — `Vendor/WebRTCAudio/WEBRTC-LICENSE`, `WEBRTC-PATENTS` |
+| Abseil 20240722.0 | Apache-2.0 — `Vendor/WebRTCAudio/ABSEIL-LICENSE` |
+| Ooura FFT and other WebRTC third-party code | see `Vendor/WebRTCAudio/THIRD-PARTY-LICENSE` |
+
+## macOS dependencies
+
+| Component | Licence |
+|---|---|
+| llama.cpp XCFramework (`ggml-org/llama.cpp`) | MIT |
+| FluidAudio (`FluidInference/FluidAudio`) | Apache-2.0 |
+| sherpa-onnx C API (`k2-fsa/sherpa-onnx`), dlopened at runtime | Apache-2.0 |
+
+## Windows dependencies
+
+| Component | Licence |
+|---|---|
+| Avalonia 11.3.20 | MIT |
+| NAudio 2.3.0 | MIT |
+| `org.k2fsa.sherpa.onnx` 1.13.5 (bundles ONNX Runtime) | Apache-2.0 |
+| xunit, Shouldly, NetArchTest.Rules (test only, not shipped) | Apache-2.0 / BSD-3-Clause / MIT |
+
+## Landing page (`site/`)
+
+React, React DOM, Framer Motion, Tailwind CSS, PostCSS, Autoprefixer, Vite and TypeScript
+are MIT; `lucide-react` is ISC; the Fontsource packages redistribute Inter and
+Instrument Serif under the SIL Open Font License 1.1. The fonts keep their OFL terms when
+the site is copied; the OFL's only real constraint — do not sell the fonts on their own and
+do not rename them — is untouched by the AGPL.
+
+## Models
+
+Speech and language models (Apple's own, Parakeet TDT, Qwen, S1-mini, the wake-word model)
+are **downloaded at runtime and are not distributed with this source or with the app**.
+Each carries its own licence from its publisher, which the AGPL here neither extends nor
+restricts. Check the model's own terms before redistributing weights.
+
+## Cloud services
+
+OpenRouter, Google Workspace (`gws`), Composio and any MCP server the user configures are
+optional, opt-in, and reached over the network. They are services, not code in this work.

site/package.json

@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 {
   "name": "nextnotes-site",
   "private": true,
+  "license": "AGPL-3.0-or-later",
   "version": "0.0.0",
   "type": "module",
   "scripts": {

windows/Directory.Build.props

@@ -41,6 +41,10 @@
 
     <Company>Pivot Studio</Company>
     <Product>Next Notes</Product>
-    <Copyright>Copyright © Pat Simmons</Copyright>
+    <Copyright>Copyright © 2026 Serge Kadjo</Copyright>
+
+    <!-- Stamped into every assembly. The repository is AGPL-3.0-or-later; a Windows
+         build handed to anyone has to carry the same terms as the macOS one. -->
+    <PackageLicenseExpression>AGPL-3.0-or-later</PackageLicenseExpression>
   </PropertyGroup>
 </Project>