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Contributor License Agreement

docs/book/src/contributing/cla.md

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Contributor License Agreement

Version 1.0 — February 2026 · ZeroClaw Labs

By submitting a contribution (pull request, patch, issue with code, or any other form of code submission) to the ZeroClaw repository, you agree to the terms below. No separate signature is required for individual contributors.

Definitions

  • Contribution — any original work of authorship, including modifications or additions to existing work, submitted to ZeroClaw Labs for inclusion in the ZeroClaw project.
  • You — the individual or legal entity submitting a Contribution.
  • ZeroClaw Labs — the maintainers and organization responsible for the ZeroClaw project at https://github.com/zeroclaw-labs/zeroclaw.

You grant ZeroClaw Labs and recipients of software distributed by ZeroClaw Labs a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable copyright license to reproduce, prepare derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense, and distribute your Contributions and derivative works under both the MIT License and the Apache License 2.0.

Grant of patent license

You grant ZeroClaw Labs and recipients of software distributed by ZeroClaw Labs a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable patent license to make, have made, use, offer to sell, sell, import, and otherwise transfer your Contributions.

This patent license applies only to patent claims licensable by you that are necessarily infringed by your Contribution alone or in combination with the ZeroClaw project.

This protects you: if a third party files a patent claim against ZeroClaw that covers your Contribution, your patent license to the project is not revoked.

You retain your rights

This CLA does not transfer ownership of your Contribution to ZeroClaw Labs. You retain full copyright ownership of your Contribution. You are free to use your Contribution in any other project under any license.

Original work

You represent that:

  1. Each Contribution is your original creation, or you have sufficient rights to submit it under this CLA.
  2. Your Contribution does not knowingly infringe any third-party patent, copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property right.
  3. If your employer has rights to intellectual property you create, you have received permission to submit the Contribution, or your employer has signed a corporate CLA with ZeroClaw Labs.

No trademark rights

This CLA does not grant you any rights to use the ZeroClaw name, trademarks, service marks, or logos. The "ZeroClaw" name and logo are trademarks of ZeroClaw Labs.

Attribution

ZeroClaw Labs maintains attribution to contributors in the repository commit history and NOTICE file. Your contributions are permanently and publicly recorded.

Dual-license commitment

All Contributions accepted into the ZeroClaw project are licensed under both:

  • MIT License — permissive open-source use
  • Apache License 2.0 — patent protection and stronger IP guarantees

This dual-license model ensures maximum compatibility and protection for the entire contributor community.

Corporate contributors

For contributions on behalf of a company or organization, open an issue titled "Corporate CLA — [Company Name]" and a maintainer will follow up.

Questions

Open an issue at https://github.com/zeroclaw-labs/zeroclaw/issues.

Based on the Apache Individual Contributor License Agreement v2.0, adapted for the ZeroClaw dual-license model.