# Contributor License Agreement (CLA) — mcp-graph

Thank you for your interest in contributing to **mcp-graph**, a project
authored and maintained by **Diego Lima Nogueira de Paula** ("the Project
Owner").

This Contributor License Agreement ("Agreement") clarifies the intellectual
property rights granted with each contribution to the Project. It protects
you, the Project Owner, and downstream users.

This Agreement is a **license grant** (not a copyright assignment). You keep
ownership of Your Contribution. You grant the Project Owner a broad,
irrevocable license — wide enough that the Project Owner may distribute the
Project under **AGPL-3.0-or-later** for the community **and** under
**commercial terms** for organizations that cannot adopt AGPL
(see [`COMMERCIAL.md`](COMMERCIAL.md)).

The structure and spirit of this Agreement follow the
[Apache Individual Contributor License Agreement v2.0](https://www.apache.org/licenses/icla.pdf).
The wording is original to this project; the Apache ICLA is referenced for
readers who want to compare clause for clause.

By submitting a Contribution (as defined below), **you agree to the terms of
this Agreement for that and any subsequent Contributions**.

---

## 1. Definitions

- **"You"** (or "Your") is the individual or legal entity identified as the
  submitter of the Contribution.
- **"Contribution"** is any original work of authorship, including
  modifications or additions to existing work, that is intentionally submitted
  by You for inclusion in the Project. This includes source code, tests,
  documentation, configuration, and any other material submitted via pull
  request, patch, issue attachment, or direct commit.
- **"Project"** refers to the **mcp-graph** codebase and related artifacts
  maintained in the GitHub repository `DiegoNogueiraDev/mcp-graph-workflow`
  and any successor repository.

---

## 2. Grant of Copyright License

You retain copyright in Your Contribution. Subject to the terms of this
Agreement, **You hereby grant to the Project Owner** a perpetual, worldwide,
non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, **irrevocable** copyright license,
**with the right to sublicense through multiple tiers**, to:

- Reproduce, prepare derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform,
  and distribute Your Contribution and such derivative works.
- Distribute Your Contribution — as part of the Project or separately —
  under the open-source license the Project currently uses
  (AGPL-3.0-or-later) **and/or** under any other license the Project Owner
  selects, including later copyleft licenses (e.g., SSPL, GPL, LGPL),
  permissive licenses (e.g., MIT, Apache-2.0), and **proprietary or commercial
  licenses** sold by the Project Owner under the dual-licensing model
  described in [`COMMERCIAL.md`](COMMERCIAL.md).

The purpose of the sublicensing right is **not** to strip Your Contribution
out of the open-source Project — Your Contribution will remain available
under AGPL-3.0-or-later in perpetuity. The sublicensing right exists so that
the Project Owner can additionally offer the Project under a commercial
license to organizations that cannot adopt AGPL, sustaining the dual model.

Recipients of the Project who receive it from the Project Owner (whether
under AGPL-3.0-or-later or under a commercial license) do so under the
terms that the Project Owner publishes for their specific distribution
channel. They do not inherit sublicensing rights from You through this
Agreement; the Project Owner is the sole sublicensor.

---

## 3. Grant of Patent License

Subject to the terms of this Agreement, **You hereby grant to the Project
Owner and to recipients of software distributed by the Project Owner** a
perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, **irrevocable**
(except as stated below) patent license to make, have made, use, offer to
sell, sell, import, and otherwise transfer the Project, where such license
applies only to those patent claims licensable by You that are necessarily
infringed by Your Contribution alone or by combination of Your Contribution
with the Project.

If any entity institutes patent litigation against You or any other entity
alleging that Your Contribution, or the Project to which You have contributed,
constitutes direct or contributory patent infringement, then any patent
licenses granted to that entity under this Agreement for that Contribution
or Project shall terminate as of the date such litigation is filed.

---

## 4. Representations

You represent that:

4.1. Each of Your Contributions is **Your original creation**, or You have
     sufficient rights to submit the Contribution and to grant the licenses
     in Sections 2 and 3.

4.2. If Your Contribution includes material that is not Your original
     creation (e.g., third-party code), You have identified the source and
     the license under which it is distributed, and that license is
     compatible with AGPL-3.0-or-later.

4.3. If Your employer has rights to intellectual property that You create
     that includes Your Contributions, You have received permission to make
     Contributions on behalf of that employer, or Your employer has waived
     such rights for Your Contributions to the Project. If You are submitting
     on behalf of an employer, an authorized representative of that employer
     must sign a separate Corporate CLA or co-sign this Agreement.

4.4. You are **legally entitled** to grant the above licenses and that no
     contract, policy, or other commitment is in conflict with this
     Agreement.

---

## 5. Support and Warranty

You are not expected to provide support for Your Contributions, except to
the extent You desire to do so. Your Contributions are provided **"AS IS"**,
**without warranty** of any kind, express or implied, including without
limitation any warranties or conditions of title, non-infringement,
merchantability, or fitness for a particular purpose.

---

## 6. Notifications

You agree to notify the Project Owner of any facts or circumstances of which
You become aware that would make these representations inaccurate in any
respect.

---

## 7. Scope and Term

This Agreement applies to **all Contributions** You submit to the Project,
past, present, and future. The license grants in Sections 2 and 3 are
**irrevocable** and survive termination of this Agreement.

You may terminate this Agreement by providing written notice to the Project
Owner, **effective only for future Contributions** — already-submitted
Contributions remain governed by the grants above in perpetuity.

---

## 8. Governing Law

This Agreement is governed by the laws of the Federative Republic of Brazil,
without reference to its conflict-of-laws rules. Any disputes arising from
this Agreement shall be submitted to the courts of the city of São Paulo,
Brazil, unless the Project Owner consents to an alternative forum in
writing.

The Project is protected under Brazilian Lei 9.609/1998 (software
copyright, automatic from creation, 50-year term) and Lei 9.610/1998
(general copyright). INPI registration under Lei 9.609 is in
preparation as of 2026-04-19; see
[`docs/PROVENANCE.md`](docs/PROVENANCE.md) for the full provenance
framework and current INPI status.

---

## 9. How to Sign

**Option A — Automated (recommended for most contributors).**
The Project uses the `contributor-assistant` (cla-assistant.io) GitHub
Action. The first time You open a pull request, the bot will comment with a
link asking You to sign the CLA. Follow the link, authenticate with GitHub,
and click **"I agree"**. Your signature is recorded alongside Your GitHub
username.

**Option B — Manual.**
Email a signed copy of this Agreement to the Project Owner via the contact
channel listed in [`COMMERCIAL.md`](COMMERCIAL.md), with the subject line
`CLA signature — <your GitHub username>`. Include Your full legal name, a
stable email address, and (optionally) Your employer if covered by Section
4.3.

**Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO).**
Independent of the CLA, every commit You submit to the Project must include
a `Signed-off-by:` trailer (`git commit --signoff` or `-s`). This attests
that You meet the terms of the
[Developer Certificate of Origin v1.1](https://developercertificate.org/) —
essentially, that You have the right to submit the Contribution under the
Project's open-source license. The DCO is enforced by the commit-msg hook
and by CI.

**The DCO is not a substitute for the CLA.** The DCO attests to the origin
of the Contribution; the CLA additionally grants the Project Owner the
sublicensing rights needed to sustain the commercial tier. Contributions
received with a DCO sign-off but no CLA signature are accepted only under
AGPL-3.0-or-later and **are not relicensed into the commercial tier**. If
You prefer this arrangement — contribute under AGPL only, without enabling
the commercial sublicensing — simply do not sign the CLA and explicitly
decline when the bot asks. The Project Owner may still merge Your
Contribution at their discretion.

---

## 10. Changes to this Agreement

The Project Owner may update this Agreement. Material changes will be
announced in the Project's `CHANGELOG.md` and require re-signature before
further Contributions are accepted.

---

*Version 1.0 — effective 2026-04-19.*
*Based on Apache ICLA v2.0, adapted for dual-licensing.*
