Is Hexabot Open Source?

General
1

Hi everyone,

I’m an open-source enthusiast and I recently discovered Hexabot. The project looks really interesting, especially because it seems to combine chatbot building, AI workflows, self-hosting, and developer extensibility.

Before going deeper, I wanted to better understand the licensing model.

Is Hexabot fully open source, or is it more of a source-available / fair-code project?

More specifically, I’d like to understand:

  • Can individuals and companies freely self-host Hexabot?

  • Are there any restrictions on commercial use?

  • Can developers build and publish custom extensions or integrations?

  • Is the community encouraged to contribute to the core project?

  • Are there enterprise features or paid plans separate from the main codebase?

Thanks!

2

Hi,

Thanks for raising this question. It is an important one, especially for developers and companies who care about licensing clarity.

Hexabot is licensed under FCL-1.0-ALv2, which stands for Fair Core License 1.0 with Apache 2.0 as the future license.

So to be precise: Hexabot is not fully open source in the classical OSI sense today. It is better described as fair-source or fair-core.

What this means in practice is:

You can use Hexabot, self-host it, study the code, modify it, build extensions, and use it internally for your own projects or organization.

You can also contribute to the project, build custom actions, channels, integrations, and participate in the community.

The main restriction is that you cannot take Hexabot and offer it as a competing commercial product or service with substantially similar functionality.

The reason behind this model is to keep the project accessible to developers and teams, while also protecting the sustainability of the company and the product. Building and maintaining a serious automation platform requires long-term investment, and the license is designed to balance openness with sustainability.

Another important point: each version of Hexabot becomes available under Apache License 2.0 after two years. So there is a delayed open-source mechanism built into the license.

In short:

Hexabot is source-available / fair-source today, with broad rights for self-hosting, internal use, customization, and contribution, but with a restriction against competing commercial offerings. Over time, versions become Apache 2.0 licensed.

Hope this clarifies the licensing model.