StreamingKV Free Edition License

This is a free evaluation and personal use license for source code.  It is not a permissive license. It does not permit commercial use. It does not permit redistribution. It expires sixty days after you accept it. It is offered only to individuals in the United States. 

1. Agreement and acceptance

1.1 This License is an agreement between StreamingKV LLC, a Texas limited liability company with its principal office in Dike, Texas ("StreamingKV", "we", "us"), and the person who obtains the Software ("you"; see Section 1.3).

1.2 You accept this License by doing any of the following: completing the download gate through which we supply the Software, typing ACCEPT at the build prompt, passing the --accept-license build flag, setting the ACCEPT_LICENSE=yes environment variable in a container build, or building, compiling, or running the Software. If you do not accept this License, do not build, compile, run, or keep the Software.

1.3 You must be an individual who (a) is at least eighteen (18) years old; (b) is a citizen or lawful permanent resident of the United States; and (c) resides in the United States and is located in the United States when you accept this License and when you obtain the Software. If you accept in connection with an organization, you accept on your own behalf and are bound personally, and you must not permit that organization to use the Software except through you and within this License. The organization is not a licensee and acquires no right in the Software; use of the Software by or for it outside the rights granted to you is unlicensed. You do not need authority to bind the organization to accept this License.

1.4 The Software is provided to you without charge. You are not purchasing, leasing, or otherwise acquiring goods or services from us.

2. Definitions

"Software" means the StreamingKV Free Edition source code, build files, and documentation that we make available under this License, identified by the Version and Release Date stated in the file named VERSION distributed with it. The Software is only what we distribute under this License. Nothing else is licensed. The Software does not include Third-Party Components or Models.

"Third-Party Components" means the files, and the portions of files, identified in the file named THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES distributed with the Software as the work of persons other than StreamingKV, including code from the llama.cpp project and any tokenizer vocabulary.

"Version" means one release of the Software identified by its Version identifier. Each Version is licensed separately under the terms that accompany it.

"Release Date" means the date stated in the VERSION file for that Version.

"Computer" means one machine, physical or virtual, with its own system memory.

"Main Memory" means the system memory of a Computer, as distinct from the memory of its graphics processing units and from any storage drive or other persistent storage.

"Session" means one conversation held in the Software's memory on one Computer, from load to release.

"Context" means the text a Session has read in and can answer questions about, held as the model's working memory.

"Serving" means using the Software to answer requests originating from any person other than the individual operating the Software, or from any program acting on behalf of any such person, whether or not for a fee.

"Personal Use" means use by you, for yourself, with no anticipated commercial application.

"Evaluation" means use by you solely to assess whether the Software suits your needs or your organization's needs, and not for any production, revenue-generating, or operational purpose.

"Commercial Use" means any use that is not Personal Use or Evaluation, including any use that produces revenue directly or indirectly and any use to provide a product or service to any third party. Serving is Commercial Use whatever its purpose.

"Permitted Purpose" means Personal Use or Evaluation.

"Commercial License" means a separate written license from us for a paid edition of StreamingKV.

"Licensed Patents" means the claims of the patent applications we filed relating to the technology in the Software, and of any patents and applications claiming priority to them, in any country, for those claims that would be infringed by operating the Software, as supplied or as modified by you, within the Field.

"Field" means operating the Software on a single Computer, in a single Session at a time, with the Context held in Main Memory and the memory of that Computer's graphics processing units for the duration of the Session, and the Software does not read or write any part of the Context from or to a storage drive or other persistent storage while a Session is running, except that the Context as it then exists may be written to one or more files, and read back from such files, as discrete save or load operations, for a Permitted Purpose.

3. Copyright license

3.1 Subject to your compliance with this License, we grant you a nonexclusive, nontransferable, nonsublicensable, royalty-free license during the Term for the Version you received to:

(a) reproduce the Software as necessary to obtain, store, compile, and build it, and compile and build it;

(b) modify the Software for your own use; and

(c) run the Software, as supplied or as modified by you, on one Computer at a time per individual accepting this License, solely within the Field.

3.2 The rights in Section 3.1 are the only rights granted. No right to distribute, publish, display, perform, post, transmit, sublicense, transfer, rent, lend, sell, or otherwise make the Software, any modified version of it, or any part of the Software available to any other person, in source or object form, is granted, by implication or otherwise.

3.3 You must keep intact all copyright, patent, trademark, and license notices in the Software and reproduce them in every copy you make. The copy of the Software we supply to you carries both hidden and visible copy identifiers that tie that copy to your acceptance of this License. Each identifier is a license notice under this Section and copyright management information, and you may not remove, obscure, or alter either of them.

3.4 The Software is confidential and proprietary information and a trade secret of StreamingKV, supplied to you in confidence. You must hold it in confidence, use it only as this License permits, and not disclose any part of it to any other person. This obligation is in addition to Section 3.2. It continues for as long as the Software, or any part of it, remains a trade secret. Publication or issuance of any patent application does not end this obligation as to any part of the Software that the publication does not itself disclose, and does not end it at all as to the source code as written. This Section does not prevent you from publishing your own measurements of, and observations about, the performance and behavior of the Software as it runs on your Computer, provided you disclose no source code and no implementation detail that is not apparent from running the Software.

3.5 Third-Party Components are licensed to you under their own license terms, reproduced in the THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES file, and not under this License. Nothing in this License restricts any right those terms give you in a Third-Party Component, and Sections 3.2, 3.4, and 5(d) do not apply to Third-Party Components. This Section does not permit you to disclose any other part of the Software.

3.6 Models. The Software operates on trained machine learning models, including their weights, tokenizers, and configuration files ("Models"), that you obtain separately, except for any tokenizer vocabulary distributed as a Third-Party Component under Section 3.5. Models are not part of the Software and are not licensed under this License. Except for that tokenizer vocabulary, Models are not supplied by us. Each Model is licensed by its publisher under its own terms, which may be a standard license such as the MIT License or the Apache License 2.0, or a custom license that may impose use restrictions, acceptable-use policies, attribution or naming requirements, user or revenue thresholds, or limits on commercial use. You are solely responsible for obtaining each Model from a source its license permits, for accepting and complying with its license, and for your use of the Model and its output. Where the setup script offers to download a Model, it downloads the Model on your behalf from a source that the Model's license permits, which the script identifies together with a checksum of the file, and only after you confirm that you have read and accepted that Model's license. Nothing in this License grants you any right in any Model, and nothing in any Model license enlarges your rights in the Software.

4. Patent license

4.1 Subject to your compliance with this License, we grant you a nonexclusive, nontransferable, nonsublicensable, royalty-free license during the Term for the Version you received under the Licensed Patents to use the Software.

4.2 The license in Section 4.1 does not extend to running the Software outside the Field.

4.3 We reserve all rights under all patents and patent applications we own or control, including every claim of the applications and patents identified in the definition of Licensed Patents that is not a Licensed Patent claim. No license or right under any patent is granted by implication, estoppel, legal estoppel, exhaustion, or otherwise, and no sale or distribution under this License exhausts any patent right outside the Field.

5. What you may not do

You may not, and may not permit or assist anyone else to, do any of the following with the Software, as supplied or as modified by you:

(a) use the Software for any Commercial Use;

(b) engage in Serving with the Software, including running one or more copies of the Software as a service for other users behind a gateway, proxy, queue, or scheduler of any kind;

(c) run more than one Session at a time per individual accepting this License, or use more than one Computer at a time to hold or process the Context of a Session;

(d) breach Section 3.4, or do anything Section 3.2 withholds, by any means, including in a repository, container image, package, patch, diff, fork, or archive; or

(e) use the Software or any part of it to train or fine-tune a machine learning model, or include it in any dataset assembled for that purpose.

6. Your own work

Nothing in this License restricts you from designing, writing, or distributing your own software, including software that performs functions similar to the Software or to any other StreamingKV product, provided you do not copy or adapt the Software into it. This License grants no rights under any patent for any software other than the Software.

7. Term

7.1 The Term for a Version begins when you first accept this License for that Version and ends sixty (60) days later, unless terminated earlier under Section 8. Accepting again for the same Version does not start a new Term.

7.2 The Software contains no time lock, license-key check, or remote disablement, and never transmits any information to us. The following parts of the Software connect to the internet, only to third parties and only to download files: the Model's tokenizer is downloaded from Hugging Face the first time the tokenizer tool, the interactive program, or the comparison script needs it; kv_cost, a tool that reports how much memory a Model's context needs, downloads that Model's configuration file from Hugging Face when you give it a Model's name instead of a local file; the comparison script, after asking you, downloads llama.cpp from GitHub and a Model from Hugging Face; and the setup script, after asking you, installs missing software from your operating system's package repositories and other third-party sources and downloads a Model. Those connections are between your Computer and those third parties, and we receive nothing from them. Expiry of the Term is a legal limit, not a technical one. When the Term for a Version ends you must stop using that Version and delete your copies, unless you have obtained a Commercial License.

7.3 We may release later Versions under different terms or not at all. Nothing in this License obligates us to release any later Version or to offer any Commercial License.

8. Termination

8.1 If you materially breach this License and fail to cure the breach within thirty (30) days after we notify you in writing, this License terminates automatically at the end of that period.

8.2 Termination is prospective. It does not affect rights and obligations accrued before termination. On termination you must stop using the Software and delete your copies.

8.3 Neither party may terminate this License for convenience.

8.4 All provisions survive termination or expiry except the licenses granted in Sections 3.1 and 4.1.

9. Disclaimer of warranty

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, STREAMINGKV DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NONINFRINGEMENT, AND ANY WARRANTY ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE. STREAMINGKV DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SOFTWARE WILL BUILD, RUN, BE ERROR FREE, OR MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS. YOU BEAR THE ENTIRE RISK OF USING THE SOFTWARE, INCLUDING ANY LOSS OF DATA OR CONTEXT. STREAMINGKV MAKES NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND REGARDING ANY MODEL, ANY MODEL LICENSE, OR ANY OUTPUT OF A MODEL, AND DOES NOT WARRANT THAT ANY MODEL IS LICENSED FOR YOUR INTENDED USE.

10. Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, STREAMINGKV AND ITS MEMBERS, MANAGERS, EMPLOYEES, AND CONTRACTORS WILL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU UNDER ANY THEORY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE, AND INCLUDING STREAMINGKV'S OWN NEGLIGENCE), STRICT LIABILITY, OR OTHERWISE, FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF DATA, PROFITS, REVENUE, OR USE, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THIS LICENSE OR THE SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY. STREAMINGKV'S TOTAL LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THIS LICENSE OR THE SOFTWARE WILL NOT EXCEED ONE HUNDRED UNITED STATES DOLLARS (US $100). THESE LIMITS ARE AN ESSENTIAL BASIS OF THE BARGAIN AND APPLY EVEN IF ANY REMEDY FAILS OF ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE.

11. Trademarks, contributions, export

11.1 This License grants no right to use the StreamingKV name, logos, or marks, except to refer to the Software.

11.2 We do not accept contributions to the Software under this License. Anything you send us, including bug reports, feedback, suggestions, reviews, and measurements ("Submissions"), is not confidential, and sending it creates no confidential or fiduciary relationship. You grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free license to use, copy, modify, publish, and otherwise exploit your Submissions for any purpose, without obligation, attribution, or payment to you, except that we will not publish your name, or words attributed to you, without your separate written permission. You represent that you have the right to send each Submission and that it contains nothing a third party restricts you from disclosing. Do not send us anything you consider confidential or proprietary. Any contribution program we operate will be governed by a separate signed contributor agreement.

11.3 The Software is subject to United States export control and sanctions laws. We offer the Software only to individuals who meet Section 1.3, and only for delivery in the United States. You represent that you meet Section 1.3; that you are not named on any United States restricted-party list, including the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List and the Entity List; and that you are not acquiring the Software for, on behalf of, or at the direction of any person named on such a list. You will not export, reexport, transfer, or take the Software to Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Belarus, or the Crimea, so-called Donetsk People's Republic, or so-called Luhansk People's Republic regions of Ukraine, or to any person described in this Section, and you will not otherwise use, export, or reexport the Software in violation of those laws.

12. Assignment and successors

12.1 You may not assign or transfer this License or any right under it. Any attempted assignment is void.

12.2 We may assign this License, and the copyrights and patents it covers, without your consent. This License binds any assignee of, or exclusive licensee under, those copyrights or patents for the remainder of the Term of each Version you have accepted, and no assignment enlarges any right granted to you.

13. Governing law, forum, and disputes

13.1 Governing law. This License, and any dispute or claim arising out of or relating to it, the Software, or your use of the Software, whether in contract, tort, or otherwise, is governed by the laws of the State of Texas and the federal laws of the United States, without regard to any conflict of laws rule that would apply another jurisdiction's law. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply. The Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act, as enacted in any jurisdiction, does not apply.

13.2 Forum. Because claims under this License include claims arising under the Copyright Act and the Patent Act, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas has exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute or claim arising out of or relating to this License or the Software, and, only if that court lacks subject matter jurisdiction, the state courts of the State of Texas. You consent to personal jurisdiction in those courts and waive any objection based on venue or inconvenient forum. Nothing in this section limits our right to seek injunctive relief in any court of competent jurisdiction.

13.3 JURY WAIVER. TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, EACH PARTY KNOWINGLY, VOLUNTARILY, AND INTENTIONALLY WAIVES ANY RIGHT TO TRIAL BY JURY IN ANY ACTION ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THIS LICENSE OR THE SOFTWARE.

13.4 Equitable relief. You acknowledge that a breach of Section 3, 4, or 5 would cause us irreparable harm for which damages are an inadequate remedy, and that we are entitled to injunctive relief without posting bond, in addition to any other remedy.

13.5 Attorneys' fees. In any action arising out of or relating to this License, the prevailing party is entitled to recover its reasonable attorneys' fees and costs.

13.6 Liquidated damages. The harm from a breach of Section 5(a), 5(b), or 5(d) is real but difficult to measure, because it consists of lost commercial licensing revenue, loss of the confidentiality of the Software, and harm to the value of our patent applications, none of which can be computed with precision. You will pay us, as liquidated damages and not as a penalty, (a) for each breach of Section 5(a) or 5(b), three times the annual list price of a Commercial License for one server on the date of the breach (US $30,000 at the list price of US $10,000 in effect on the Release Date of Version 1.0.0), and (b) for each breach of Section 5(d), one hundred fifty thousand United States dollars (US $150,000). The parties agree that these amounts are a reasonable forecast of that harm and not disproportionate to it. A breach under clause (a) on more than one Computer is a separate breach for each Computer. Liquidated damages do not limit our right to injunctive relief under Section 13.4 or to any remedy for misappropriation of trade secrets.

14. General

14.1 Entire agreement. This License is the entire agreement between you and us about the Software and supersedes any prior or contemporaneous communication. It may be changed only by a written agreement signed by us.

14.2 Conditions. Each limitation in Sections 3, 4, 5, and 7 is a condition of and a limit on the scope of the licenses granted, and use outside those limits is unlicensed.

14.3 Severability. If any provision is held unenforceable, it will be enforced to the maximum extent permitted and the remainder will continue in effect.

14.4 No waiver. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of it.

14.5 Notices. Notices to us go to StreamingKV LLC, Attention: Managing Member, 441 County Road 3512, Dike, Texas 75437, USA, with a copy to legal@streamingkv.com. Notice to you is effective when sent to any address or account you provided or used to obtain the Software, or, if we have none, when posted at the canonical URL in Section 14.7.

14.6 Paid editions. Nothing in this License grants any right in any paid edition of StreamingKV.

14.7 Reference copy. The text of this License as published on the Release Date of your Version is available at https://streamingkv.com/license.

14.8 Privacy. Our Privacy Policy, at https://streamingkv.com/privacy, describes the personal information we collect in connection with this License and the Software and how we use it. The Privacy Policy is provided for your information and is not part of this License.

StreamingKV Free Edition License, Version 1.0.0. Copyright 2026 StreamingKV LLC.