Introducing Contributor License Agreement (CLA) to Secure Axmol’s Future

[halx99]

Dear Axmol Community Members, Contributors, and Users,

First and foremost, I want to express my sincere gratitude to every developer who has contributed to Axmol. It is your collective efforts that have transformed Axmol from a personal project into a widely recognized, high-performance open-source game engine. To date, Axmol has received diamond-level sponsorship from companies like Scorewarrior, and our community activity and codebase continue to grow at an impressive pace.
As the project scales and commercial partnerships deepen, we face a challenge common to all mature open-source projects: how to provide clearer and more robust legal protections for the long-term health of the project.

💡 Before we dive into the details, let us make one thing clear: Axmol is, and will always remain, a fully open-source project under the MIT License. The introduction of the CLA does not change our open-source nature; it is a shield to protect it.

❓ Why Introduce a CLA?

While the MIT license is extremely friendly to users, it has certain gaps regarding patent grants and explicit contributor rights attribution. With the involvement of commercial partners like Scorewarrior, we need to ensure that:

• Patent Protection: The project has adequate patent cross-licensing protections to prevent potential future patent trolls or disputes.
• Clear IP Provenance: The rights and obligations of contributors are clearly defined, transparent, and legally binding.
• Commercial Confidence: Commercial partners can confidently integrate and invest in deeper collaborations with Axmol without legal compliance risks.

To address these needs, we have decided to officially introduce a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) for the Axmol project, effective August 9, 2026.

📝 What Does the CLA Include & How to Sign?

We have adapted standard CLA templates from top-tier open-source foundations (such as the Apache Software Foundation), tailoring them to Axmol’s specific context. We have prepared two versions:

• Individual CLA (ICLA): For contributors acting on their own behalf.
• Corporate CLA (CCLA): For contributors whose work belongs to their employer.

The signing process is fully automated and friction-free:
When you submit a new Pull Request (PR), our CLA Assistant bot will automatically check your status. If you haven't signed yet, it will leave a comment with a link. Simply click the link, log in with GitHub to authorize, and confirm. The entire process takes less than 1 minute and only needs to be done once per account.

⚖️ Maintaining Independence: Axmol’s Core Principle is Unchanged

We understand that the open-source community deeply values independence and neutrality. In introducing the CLA, we solemnly reaffirm our core principles:

Axmol will continue to uphold the governance principle of being entirely “independent of any organization.” The technical roadmap is determined solely by the community and technical needs, not by any single commercial entity.

• As halx99 (myself): As the founder and lead developer of Axmol, I will continue to guide the project’s technical evolution as an individual contributor, just as I always have.
• As the Founder of Simdsoft Limited: I will strictly ensure that the company’s commercial operations and business decisions do not interfere with, alter, or hijack community governance and the project's technical direction.

In short: Simdsoft is one of the project’s sponsors and legal maintainers, not its “owner.” The project belongs entirely to the community.

🏢 On the Role of Simdsoft

As the project moves toward more formalized and professional operations, Simdsoft Limited will strictly act as a legal and administrative vehicle:

• Host and administrator of the CLA: Maintaining signed records securely and ensuring legal compliance.
• Point of contact for commercial partnerships: Executing technical service agreements with enterprise partners (like Scorewarrior).
• Organizer of core maintenance efforts: Providing ongoing R&D resources, infrastructure, and financial support to fuel the project.

None of these administrative roles will alter the community-driven, open, and transparent development model of Axmol.

🚀 Next Steps

1. New Contributors: Please follow the CLA Assistant prompts when submitting new PRs to complete the quick signing process.
2. Existing Contributors: We will not retroactively apply the CLA to historical PRs. However, we highly welcome you to sign proactively as a show of support for Axmol's growth.
3. Community Discussion: If you have any questions, concerns, or feedback, please feel free to talk to us on our Discord or reply directly in this GitHub Discussion.

— halx99
Founder & Lead Developer, Axmol Project
Founder & Operator, Simdsoft Limited
August 9, 2026

[rh101]

3. Community Discussion: If you have any questions, concerns, or feedback, please feel free to talk to us on our Discord or reply directly in this GitHub Discussion.

@halx99 Is the link to the GitHub discussion topic correct?

[halx99]

3. Community Discussion: If you have any questions, concerns, or feedback, please feel free to talk to us on our Discord or reply directly in this GitHub Discussion.

@halx99 Is the link to the GitHub discussion topic correct?

Thanks, I fixed the link.