The agent runtime behind Second Machine is a fork of OpenAgent, an open-source project from the team behind AFFiNE. The whole argument for this product is that a customer can inspect what they are paying for, so the lineage is published in full rather than reduced to a single licence badge.
Calling a codebase "open source" without saying which licence applies to which directory is close to saying nothing. There are three distinct layers here, and they impose different obligations.
The repository root is licensed under the Apache License 2.0. It is permissive: the code can be used, modified and redistributed, including commercially, provided the licence text, the copyright notice and a statement of changes travel with it. Apache 2.0 also grants a patent licence from contributors, which is one reason it is used at the root. The full licence text and the NOTICE file ship inside every published source archive.
The server package is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3. The AGPL is a copyleft licence, and its section 13 extends copyleft across the network: anyone interacting with a modified version of the program remotely must be offered the corresponding source of that version. Running it as a hosted service does not avoid the obligation the way the plain GPL would allow.
OpenAgent descends from AFFiNE, and AFFiNE's own licensing is set by its authors rather than by this project. The frontend is published under MIT terms and the backend is separately licensed by the AFFiNE authors under their own terms. Nothing on this page relicenses upstream code, and the upstream commits carried into the fork are listed with the published source.
Section 13 of the AGPL is the clause that matters most for a hosted product, so it is quoted in effect rather than gestured at.
Every customer whose machine runs the Second Machine server package is a network user of that package under section 13 of the GNU AGPL v3. Second Machine therefore makes this offer, without conditions and without requiring a support plan, a contract, or a reason:
The dashboard shows the running revision of the server package on every machine, so a request can name the exact build being audited. Where the request is for the Apache 2.0 portions of the repository instead, those are published in the same archive with their own licence and notice files.
Second Machine packages and hosts these runtimes; it does not own them. Where the upstream licence has not been verified against the current release, the cell says so rather than naming a licence that might be wrong. A guessed licence is worse than an admitted gap.
| Machine | Upstream project | Licence posture | Packaging by Second Machine |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenClaw Agent | OpenClaw, the community agent runtime | Verify upstream licence | Pinned image, unmodified runtime, Second Machine configuration layer |
| ZeroClaw Agent | ZeroClaw, a minimal Rust agent runtime | Verify upstream licence | Pinned image, unmodified runtime, Second Machine configuration layer |
| Hermes Agent | Hermes, a self-improving agent with a multi-platform gateway | Verify upstream licence | Pinned image, gateway restricted to approved channels |
| OpenClaw Browser | OpenClaw browser variant | Verify upstream licence | Pinned image with a headless browser and a recording sidecar |
| Claude Code | Claude Code, published by Anthropic | Proprietary vendor terms, verify before reuse | Pinned image; runs only on a customer-supplied Anthropic key |
| DeepSeek Harness | DeepSeek Harness, a plugin-based agent runtime | Verify upstream licence | Pinned image, plugin directory mounted from the machine disk |
| Flue Agent | Flue, a starter-kit agent runtime | Verify upstream licence | Pinned image, unmodified runtime, Second Machine configuration layer |
| Desktop Agent | Linux desktop image with a remote-control bridge | Verify upstream licence for each bundled component | Pinned desktop image, session recording, customer takeover bridge |
| Server package | Second Machine fork of OpenAgent | GNU AGPL v3, source offered to network users | Built and run by Second Machine on every machine |
| Repository root | Second Machine fork of OpenAgent | Apache License 2.0 | Published with licence and notice files intact |
Licence posture last reviewed 2026-09-01. Rows marked for verification are being confirmed against the current upstream releases, and each will be replaced with the named licence and a link once it is confirmed rather than assumed.
A machine is a runtime, not a model. The two are priced and disclosed separately, because swapping the model underneath a job changes what it costs and what it is capable of.
ZeroClaw Agent, DeepSeek Harness and Desktop Agent run on open-weight models served through the metered gateway and need no key. Their work draws on your plan credits; stronger models draw more.
OpenClaw Agent, OpenClaw Browser, Hermes Agent and Flue Agent accept an OPENAI_API_KEY on the account, or fall back to the metered proxy. Jobs on a customer key are billed by that vendor, not here, and do not use your credits.
Claude Code requires a customer-supplied ANTHROPIC_API_KEY and has no proxy fallback, because its model is not open-weight and is not resold here. Your monthly statement still names the model for the audit trail.
Model names change as upstream releases move. The receipt records the model that actually ran the job at the time it ran, so an old receipt stays accurate after a default changes.
The machine page prints the running revision of the server package and the pinned image tag of the runtime. Copy both. A request without a revision is answered with the current one.
State the revision and whether the AGPL server package, the Apache 2.0 root, or both are wanted. No form, no account manager, and no requirement to be a paying customer if the code was served to you over the network.
The reply is a download link to a signed archive containing the corresponding source, the licence and notice files, the build scripts, and the configuration needed to run the same version. Requests are answered within ten business days.
The archive lists the upstream commits carried into the fork, so the difference between this build and the upstream repository can be produced with an ordinary diff rather than taken on trust.
Requests for the source of the AGPL server package are a licence right under section 13 and are never treated as a support request or a competitive matter.
This section is a placeholder, and it is labelled as one rather than filled with vague claims. A per-release changelog of the fork against upstream is being prepared, and until it is published the honest statement is that the changes exist, they are shipped in the source archive described above, and they can be diffed today by anyone who asks for the archive.
Publishing an empty promise would be worse than publishing an empty section. When the changelog exists it will replace this text, and the date it replaced it will be shown.
No, and that is the point of the AGPL. Section 13 applies precisely to the case where software is used over a network instead of distributed, which is exactly how a Second Machine container serves its user.
The root is Apache 2.0 so that libraries, schemas and client code can be reused freely. The server package is AGPL v3 because it is the part that gets served over a network, and copyleft there is what keeps the hosted version inspectable.
No. AFFiNE's backend is separately licensed by its authors under their own terms, and nothing here changes or extends those terms. Anyone reusing upstream code should read the upstream licences directly.
Because the licence on the current release of that project has not been confirmed by a person here yet. Naming a licence that turns out to be wrong would be a licensing claim made carelessly, which is worse than an honest gap in a table.
Answer one question about what you do. Your machine starts on it before you finish reading the confirmation, and proposes tomorrow morning's standing order. Plans from $29 a month.