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Licensing

AgentFEM is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.

This means the open-source core can be used, modified, redistributed, and used commercially, provided the license conditions are followed. The license also defines explicit patent terms and requires preservation of copyright, attribution, license, and notice information.

Source attribution and official origin

AgentFEM uses public, inspectable protection rather than hidden numerical or source-code watermarks:

  • packaged Python source carries SPDX-FileCopyrightText and SPDX-License-Identifier headers, so ordinary copies retain their license identity;
  • REUSE.toml and LICENSES/ provide repository-wide machine-readable licensing using the REUSE specification;
  • agentfem/origin.json is the single packaged origin record copied into result and dataset provenance;
  • official wheel, source, and SPDX records are covered by GitHub artifact attestations and can be checked against the canonical repository.

For example, an online release artifact can be checked with:

gh attestation verify path/to/artifact -R haoming-luo/agentfem

These records make accidental stripping, unattributed copying, and ordinary source reuse substantially easier to detect and repair. They do not make open source impossible to edit, do not claim ownership of user models or results, and cannot guarantee recognition after a complete independent rewrite.

Why Apache-2.0

AgentFEM aims to be useful in research, education, industrial prototyping, and agent-oriented CAE workflows. Apache-2.0 is a good fit because it is accepted by the scientific Python ecosystem, compatible with conda-forge packaging, and clear enough for institutional and company review.

Project Strategy

The intended structure is:

  • AgentFEM open-source core: Apache-2.0.
  • Optional commercial services: support, consulting, training, and validation.
  • Optional proprietary products: hosted workflows, GUI tools, industrial workflow packs, curated databases, and private plugins.

The open-source license cannot be withdrawn from versions that have already been released. Future separate products or modules can use different licensing when they are kept outside the Apache-2.0 core.

Private products should normally live in a separate repository and Python distribution, depend on a released AgentFEM version range, and integrate through the explicit agentfem.extensions entry-point contract. See Extension packages and private products.

Optional dependencies

The Apache-2.0 license describes AgentFEM's own source and release artifacts; it does not relicense third-party packages. In particular, Gmsh is distributed separately under GPL-2.0-or-later with the exception published by the Gmsh authors.

AgentFEM therefore treats Gmsh as an optional, separately licensed adapter:

  • the agentfem wheel and source distribution do not contain Gmsh;
  • Gmsh is absent from AgentFEM's core dependencies;
  • agentfem[gmsh] requests the separately distributed package only for users who need direct Gmsh model or .msh import;
  • the recommended offline Complete runtime may aggregate an unmodified Gmsh binary for a one-click CAD/meshing experience, while the Core runtime does not;
  • a Complete runtime release must include the Gmsh license and make the exact corresponding source plus redistribution build recipe available from the same release location;
  • structured DOLFINx meshes, XDMF, and meshio-based Abaqus/NASTRAN conversion do not require Gmsh.

Optional separation and mere aggregation keep the product boundary explicit; they do not remove the GPL obligations that apply when Gmsh binaries are redistributed. See the official Gmsh licensing page and license text.

Contributions

Unless explicitly agreed otherwise in writing, contributions are accepted under Apache-2.0. See CONTRIBUTING.md for contribution expectations.