Perch is free and open-source software, released under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0). We believe infrastructure tooling should be inspectable, self-hostable, and owned by the people who run it, not locked behind a vendor.
What you can do
Under the AGPL, you are free to:
- Use Perch for any purpose, including commercially, with no license fee;
- Study how it works, the complete source is public;
- Modify it and run your changed version;
- Share it and your modifications with others.
What the license asks in return
The AGPL is a strong copyleft license. The core obligations are:
- Keep it open. If you distribute Perch or a modified version, you must make the corresponding source available under the same AGPL-3.0 license.
- The network clause. This is what sets the AGPL apart from the GPL: if you run a modified version of Perch as a network service that others interact with, you must offer those users the source code of your modified version.
- Preserve notices. Keep the existing copyright and license notices intact.
This keeps improvements flowing back to the community and prevents a closed, proprietary fork from being offered as a service without giving anything back.
The summary above is just that, a summary. The full license text is the authoritative and legally binding version.
No warranty
As with all free software, Perch comes with no warranty. It is provided “as is”, and you run it at your own risk. See sections 15 and 16 of the license for the full disclaimer.
Name and logo
The AGPL covers Perch’s source code. The Perch name and logo are not part of that grant. You’re encouraged to build on, fork, and redistribute the code, but please don’t use the Perch name or logo in a way that implies your fork or service is the official project.
Contributing
Want to help? See the contributing guide. By contributing, you agree to license your work under AGPL-3.0 as well.