Version 1.0 · 2026
Your source. Your terms.
Publishing your source code shouldn't mean giving up control over how your software is used.
The SLI Licenses, developed by Sleepy Lab Innovations Inc., give developers and organizations a way to share their code while retaining control over commercial use and hosted services.
Both licenses allow others to inspect, modify, and redistribute covered software under defined conditions.
Choose the license that fits how you want your software to be used.
Hosting Restricted
Share your code. Protect your hosting business.
Let others use, modify, and self-host your software without allowing them to turn it into a competing hosted service.
Hosting Restricted permits personal, educational, research, and internal organizational use, including commercial use within a business. Users can run the software on their own infrastructure, modify it, and redistribute it under the license's conditions.
What they cannot do without your written authorization is offer the software as a service to third parties. That includes paid or free hosting, managed deployments, white-label products, and other arrangements that provide the software's functionality to customers.
You retain the right to offer hosted services and grant separate commercial permissions for software you own.
Noncommercial
Open to exploration. Closed to commercial exploitation.
Make your software available for personal projects, independent research, education, and other noncommercial activities while reserving commercial use for separately authorized users.
Noncommercial permits people to inspect, modify, use, and redistribute your software for noncommercial purposes.
Commercial use requires written authorization from the applicable copyright holders. This includes internal business operations, commercial products, paid services, and activities that provide a commercial advantage, even when the software itself is offered for free.
An individual's independent personal project does not become commercial simply because they work for a business. Using the software as part of that business's operations is different.
Hosting for a genuinely noncommercial purpose is permitted. Use Hosting Restricted if you also want to prohibit third-party hosting.
You decide whether to authorize commercial use of software you own, and on what terms.
Using an SLI License
You don't need permission from Sleepy Lab Innovations Inc. to adopt either license for your own software.
Choose the license that matches your intended permissions, include its complete text with your project, and provide your copyright notice with the applicable year and copyright holder.
The official license text must remain unchanged. You may reproduce and distribute either license in full for the purpose of licensing software, but modified or derivative versions of the legal text are not authorized.
Both licenses require you to publicly release the complete corresponding source code of modifications when they are put into use, including modifications used privately or internally. Changes made exclusively for development and testing do not require publication unless they are deployed or distributed.
Independently developed software does not become subject to an SLI License merely because it communicates with covered software through an API or network protocol. However, modifications and derivative works remain subject to the applicable license.
The complete text of each license is linked from its section.
These are source-available licenses, not OSI-approved open-source licenses.
The SLI Licenses and accompanying documentation are provided by Sleepy Lab Innovations Inc. "as is," without warranties or guarantees of any kind. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Sleepy Lab Innovations Inc. makes no representations or warranties regarding their accuracy, completeness, legal validity, enforceability, or suitability for any particular purpose, and disclaims liability for any losses or damages arising from their adoption, interpretation, or use.
These materials do not constitute legal advice. Users should review the applicable license text and consult a qualified legal professional before adopting or relying upon either license.