# Attune AI is Now Fully Open Source (Apache 2.0)

**Date:** January 28, 2026

We're excited to announce that **Attune AI is now fully open source** under the Apache License 2.0!

## What Changed?

- **Before:** Fair Source License 0.9 (free for small teams, paid for larger organizations)
- **After:** Apache License 2.0 (free and open source for everyone)

## Why Apache 2.0?

Attune AI helps developers save 70-85% on LLM costs through:
- Progressive tier escalation (cheap models for simple tasks)
- Intelligent caching (85% hit rates)
- Batch processing (50% cost reduction)
- Multi-agent orchestration

**But we realized the license was limiting adoption**, the restrictions made developers hesitant to try the framework.

**Open source first. Revenue later.** The path to sustainable business is:
1. **Adoption** - Get the framework into developers' hands
2. **Community** - Build contributors and advocates
3. **Value Creation** - Prove the technology works at scale
4. **Monetization** - Offer hosted services, enterprise features, support

We were trying to skip to step 4. That doesn't work.

## What This Means for You

### If you're a developer:
- ✅ **Use it freely** - Personal projects, commercial products, anything
- ✅ **Fork and modify** - Build on top of it however you want
- ✅ **Contribute** - PRs welcome, no CLA required
- ✅ **No restrictions** - No employee limits, no usage limits

### If you're a company:
- ✅ **No commercial license needed** - Use in production freely
- ✅ **Enterprise-friendly** - Apache 2.0 is approved by most legal teams
- ✅ **Patent protection** - Apache 2.0 includes patent grants
- ✅ **Clear terms** - Well-understood OSI-approved license

## What Hasn't Changed

- **Same great features** - All the cost optimization, caching, orchestration
- **Same innovation** - We're still building the best AI framework
- **Same commitment** - Active development, responsive maintainers
- **Same quality** - 7,168 tests passing (99.9%)

## Our Commitment Going Forward

We're doubling down on making Attune AI the best AI orchestration tool:

1. **Claude-native focus** - Leveraging prompt caching, 200K context, extended thinking
2. **Performance** - 18x faster than v4.8 (already shipped in v4.9)
3. **Cost optimization** - Batch API, caching, adaptive routing (shipped in v5.0.2)
4. **Developer experience** - Better docs, more examples, easier onboarding

## How You Can Help

Now that we're fully open source, we need **adoption and feedback**:

- ⭐ **Star the repo** - https://github.com/Smart-AI-Memory/attune-ai
- 🐛 **Report bugs** - Help us improve quality
- 💡 **Share ideas** - Feature requests welcome
- 📝 **Write tutorials** - Show others how to use it
- 🤝 **Contribute code** - PRs appreciated

## Future Monetization

Going open source doesn't mean we won't build a business. We plan to offer:

- **Empathy Cloud** - Hosted/managed version (like Vercel for Next.js)
- **Enterprise Edition** - Advanced features (SSO, audit logs, team management)
- **Support Contracts** - SLAs, dedicated help, custom integrations
- **Consulting** - Help teams implement AI orchestration

But **first, we need adoption**. And that means being fully open source.

## Get Started

```bash
pip install attune-ai[developer]
```

Read the docs: https://smartaimemory.com/framework-docs/

Join the community: https://github.com/Smart-AI-Memory/attune-ai/discussions

## Thank You

To everyone who believed in Attune AI under Fair Source - thank you. This change makes the project accessible to everyone, not just a select few.

Let's build the future of AI orchestration together.

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**Questions?** Open an issue or discussion on GitHub.

**Built by [Smart AI Memory](https://smartaimemory.com)** · Licensed under [Apache 2.0](LICENSE)
