legal

Who owns Kairo, what each license covers, and when you need permission to use the name.

Kairo is created by Dhruvan Kartik, who owns its intellectual property. KSF LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, is licensed to market Kairo and to offer commercial support and services. KSF LLC is not a nonprofit; payments to it are not tax-deductible.

The Kairo compiler, toolchain and runtime are licensed under Apache-2.0 WITH AdditionRef-Kairo-Runtime-exception. Programs compiled with Kairo, and code the compiler generates into them, are yours under any terms you choose (see section 2 of the Runtime Library Exception).

The language reference and compiler specification are licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Kairo™ is a trademark of Dhruvan Kartik. This section is the repository's TRADEMARKS.md, word for word.

"Kairo" and the Kairo logo are trademarks of Dhruvan Kartik. KSF LLC is licensed to use them for marketing, commercial distribution and support of Kairo.

This policy says how you may use them. The source code license (Apache-2.0 WITH AdditionRef-Kairo-Runtime-exception) covers the code only. It grants no rights to the trademarks.

Allowed without permission

  • Referring to Kairo by name, in writing, talks, courses, videos and tutorials.
  • Saying a project is "written in Kairo", "built with Kairo" or "compatible with Kairo", when that is true.
  • Redistributing unmodified official releases under their original name.
  • Packaging Kairo for an operating system distribution, with changes limited to what the distribution needs to build and install it (paths, packaging metadata, security patches). Say clearly that the package is maintained by the distribution, not by the Kairo project.
  • Community groups, events and meetups that use the name with a qualifier showing they are independent, such as "Kairo Community Berlin" or "Kairo Users Group". They must not charge for entry beyond cost recovery without permission.

Requires written permission

  • Naming a fork, modified build or derived language "Kairo", or anything confusingly similar ("Kairo Pro", "KairoX", "OpenKairo").
  • Using the name or logo in the name of a product, service, company or domain.
  • Distributing a modified build under the Kairo name or logo.
  • Implying that a product, service or organization is made, endorsed or certified by Dhruvan Kartik, KSF LLC or the Kairo project.
  • Selling merchandise that carries the name or logo.

Modified versions

A fork or modified build must use a different name and must not use the logo. You may say it is "based on Kairo" or "derived from Kairo", as long as the different name is the prominent one.

Do not modify the logo's shape or proportions. Recoloring for a dark or light background is fine.

Requests and reports

Permission requests and reports of misuse go to legal@kairolang.org.

This policy may change. The current version is in the Kairo repository and at kairolang.org/legal.

The toolchain and runtime include third-party components under their own licenses. See the NOTICE file.

Contributions require signing the Contributor License Agreement. See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Legal questions and permission requests: legal@kairolang.org.