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ADR-0030 — A finished free V1, then new features in a paid edition ​

Status: Accepted (Product Owner, 2026-10-11)

Context ​

The backlog grows feature by feature with no end set. The Product Owner wants a stop: one complete, free product that anyone can use, and a paid product for the features that only companies need. Free software is welcome, but the scope needs a firm end. On storage: the V1 is a local application, with no server side.

The repository is public under the Apache License 2.0, and only the agent writes changes (ADR-0026): no outside contribution has to be relicensed, so the same author can build a paid product on the library.

Decision ​

  1. A free V1, as complete as possible. Everything integrated before the V1 release is free and stays in this repository. Its features are chosen by the Product Owner as the work goes on; it is a real product, not a demo.
  2. After V1, the free product only gets bug fixes. Every new feature goes to the pro edition: a private project of the Product Owner, hosted elsewhere, sold as a service or self-hosted.
  3. What belongs to the pro edition: features that companies want and an individual user does not (an individual user does not want testing tools) — testing tools, open APIs for other services, project management, servers, a faster engine. Ideas are kept in editions, never as stories in this backlog.
  4. The free product is local only and stays simple: it runs on the user's computer, with a working folder and files saved one by one, like a desktop vector editor; no server side at all, not even a local server (this replaces the local server of Q5). Synoptic views, not drawing. A feature that makes it complicated is either left out or goes to the pro edition.
  5. The agent checks the scope: when a request, refinement or idea looks like a pro feature, it says so and asks the Product Owner where it goes; it never puts one in a ready story on its own.

Consequences ​

  • The free product shows the idea behind the project, and anyone may improve it under its licence.
  • Every epic of the backlog makes V1 (Q22 in the domain); the local server planned in epic E11 leaves V1, E11 keeps files in a working folder; E07 publishes libraries locally only. The application shell is still open (Q23).
  • The free library must stay usable by another product: plain data, portable core (ADR-0025), public API documented. Nothing pro is written here first.
  • Pro ideas are written in this public repository and visible to everyone, by the Product Owner's choice: this first project should go as far as possible, ideas included.

References ​

ADR-0017, ADR-0025, ADR-0026, editions, LICENSE (Apache License 2.0)