# Open-Source Dependencies and Licence Exposure ## One layer cannot be "built in-house" and "assembled from open source" In one answer, the company says that it built its low-code engine and its core framework **in-house**. The company says that it did this so that the company has no reliance on external AI platforms. The roadmap of the company shows the workflow layer on open-source orchestration and on low-code LLM-application tools. The roadmap also shows that the models operate on inference microservices of a GPU vendor. > [!danger] The sources disagree > The company Q&A says that the core framework is "built in-house". The roadmap of the company shows the workflow layer on open-source frameworks. > > This item moves one decision. The decision is if the "proprietary platform" claim is correct and if the company must get commercial licenses. > > This item is in [[Open Questions and Numbers to Reconcile]]. ## Why licenses are important here - **Low-code LLM builders**: Some popular open-source builders have a permissive license *plus added conditions*. The conditions usually say that written authorization is necessary for multi-tenant hosting. The conditions also do not let the company remove the branding of the vendor when the company uses the frontend of the vendor. The company can usually supply the tool to one enterprise. It is possible that the license does not let the company supply a hosted multi-tenant "agent-as-a-service" tier. - **Inference microservices**: Until this time, production use was possible only with a paid enterprise subscription. Free tiers are available, but the free tiers are for development. - **Alpha-stage components**: The architecture narrative includes alpha-stage components. We recommend that these components do not operate in customer production. - **GPU-vendor lock-in**: Each deployment is attached to one hardware family. - **Base-model licenses**: The terms of open-weight models are different. The sources do not show that the models are permitted for resale. > [!tip] A good result > A good result has a full software bill of materials (SBOM) and a license inventory. The repository shows a clearly bounded proprietary codebase (domain modules, retriever, ML modules, knowledge capture). ## Why it matters If the builder that the customers see is a rebranded open-source frontend, the engine is the part that is easiest to replace. The engine is also the part that causes the most problems when the company moves it. [[Open source is often misunderstood]] gives the broader point. The point is that open source is a supply chain. It is not free. ## Related - [[Foreman MOC]] - [[The Four Layer Stack and What Is Commodity]] - [[Claims Versus Evidence]] - [[Technical DD Framework]]