Licensing
Which license covers each Axelix component, and what the licenses mean when you use Axelix in your own projects.
Axelix is open source, but not every part of it ships under the same license. This page lists the license of each component and explains what it means for the applications you run Axelix with.
Licenses by component
Almost all of Axelix is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License, version 3 (LGPLv3). The only exception is the official Helm chart, which uses the MIT License.
| Component | License |
|---|---|
| Axelix Master, including its web UI and MCP server | LGPLv3 |
| Axelix Spring Boot Starters (Spring Boot 2, 3, and 4) | LGPLv3 |
| Axelix build plugins for Gradle and Maven | LGPLv3 |
| Official Axelix Helm chart | MIT |
The license applies to every form the component ships in. For example, the Master JAR and the Master Docker image
both carry LGPLv3, and the starter and plugin artifacts on Maven Central declare LGPLv3 in their POM metadata. The full
LGPLv3 text is in the LICENSE file of the
Axelix repository, and the Helm chart ships with its own MIT license text. The
copyright holder for all components is Axelix Labs.
What LGPLv3 means for your application
Yes, you can use the Axelix starters and build plugins in a closed-source, proprietary application, free of charge. You don't pay any fees, and you don't sign any agreement with Axelix Labs.
This works because LGPLv3 is a weak copyleft license. Its obligations cover Axelix's own code, not the code of applications that use it. So adding a starter to your Spring Boot service, or a build plugin to your build, doesn't require you to publish your application's source code or change its license. The same holds for running Master inside your company to monitor your services.
The obligations start when you distribute a modified version of an Axelix component. For example, if you patch the starter and ship the patched JAR to your customers, you must make the source of your changes available to them under LGPLv3. LGPLv3 has no network clause, so modifying Master and only running it on your own servers doesn't count as distribution.
Not legal advice
This section is a short summary to help you orient yourself. The license text is the only binding source. If your case depends on the details, for example when you embed Axelix into a product you sell, check it with your legal team.
The Helm chart under MIT
The Helm chart only describes how to deploy Master to Kubernetes, so it uses the more permissive MIT License. You can copy it into your internal chart repository, change it, or merge it into your own umbrella chart without sharing the changes. The only condition is to keep the copyright and license notice in the copies. Master itself, which the chart deploys, stays under LGPLv3.
Axelix Enterprise
The upcoming paid Axelix Enterprise edition is not open source. It is distributed under a separate commercial license agreement with Axelix Labs, and its additional features are not covered by LGPLv3. Axelix OSS, described in the table above, stays under LGPLv3. See Axelix OSS and Enterprise for more on the two editions.