License Management

Learn how AxonFlow licensing works across Community, Evaluation, and Enterprise tiers.

Overview

AxonFlow uses a three-tier licensing model. Each tier controls resource limits and feature access — not node counts.

Tier	License Required	Cost	How to Get
Community	No	Free	Clone the repo
Evaluation	Yes	Free	getaxonflow.com/evaluation-license
Enterprise	Yes	Paid	AWS Marketplace or [email protected]

What Each Tier Controls

Resource	Community	Evaluation	Enterprise
Tenant policies	20	50	Unlimited
Organization policies	0	5	Unlimited
Connectors with custom policies	2	5	Unlimited
LLM providers	2	3	Unlimited
Audit log retention	3 days	14 days	3650 days (configurable)
MAP plans	25	100	Unlimited
Versions per plan	10	25	Unlimited
Execution history	50	500	Unlimited
Concurrent executions	5	25	Unlimited

For a full feature comparison, see the Feature Matrix.

Community Tier (No License)

Community requires no license key. Run AxonFlow without AXONFLOW_LICENSE_KEY and Community limits apply automatically.

git clone https://github.com/getaxonflow/axonflow.git
cd axonflow
docker compose up -d
# Community mode — 20 tenant policies, 3-day audit retention

Evaluation License (Free)

Evaluation provides elevated limits for serious evaluation and pre-production validation. The license is free and time-bound — register with a named owner to receive your key.

Getting an Evaluation License

1. Go to getaxonflow.com/evaluation-license
2. Enter your name, email, and organization
3. Your license key is delivered to your email

Activating Your Evaluation License

Set the AXONFLOW_LICENSE_KEY environment variable before starting AxonFlow:

# Docker Compose
export AXONFLOW_LICENSE_KEY="AXON-eyJ...<payload>.<signature>"
docker compose up -d

# Or add to your .env file
echo 'AXONFLOW_LICENSE_KEY=AXON-eyJ...<payload>.<signature>' >> .env
docker compose up -d

AxonFlow validates the license on startup and applies Evaluation limits immediately.

Enterprise License

Enterprise unlocks compliance modules, identity management (SSO/SCIM), advanced connectors, and unlimited resource limits.

Getting an Enterprise License

AWS Marketplace:

1. Subscribe to AxonFlow on AWS Marketplace
2. License key is provided after subscription
3. Set as AXONFLOW_LICENSE_KEY in your CloudFormation parameters

Direct Purchase:

1. Contact [email protected]
2. Receive your Enterprise license key via email

Activating Your Enterprise License

During CloudFormation Deployment

1. In the CloudFormation stack parameters, locate LicenseKey
2. Paste your full license key
3. Complete the stack deployment

The license is automatically validated when agents and orchestrators start.

After Deployment (Updating License)

Option 1: Update CloudFormation Stack

1. Go to CloudFormation → Your Stack → Update
2. Choose Use current template
3. Update the LicenseKey parameter
4. Confirm and wait for stack update
5. ECS tasks will automatically restart with the new license

Option 2: Update Environment Variable Directly

# Update via AWS Secrets Manager (recommended)
aws secretsmanager update-secret \
  --secret-id axonflow/license-key \
  --secret-string "AXON-eyJ...<payload>.<signature>"

# Force service restart to pick up new license
aws ecs update-service --cluster axonflow-cluster \
  --service axonflow-agent-service --force-new-deployment
aws ecs update-service --cluster axonflow-cluster \
  --service axonflow-orchestrator-service --force-new-deployment

License Format

AxonFlow license keys are signed tokens with the format:

AXON-{BASE64URL(JSON_PAYLOAD)}.{BASE64URL(ED25519_SIGNATURE)}

• AXON- — fixed prefix
• {BASE64URL(JSON_PAYLOAD)} — base64url-encoded JSON payload (tier, tenant ID, expiry, etc.)
• {BASE64URL(ED25519_SIGNATURE)} — base64url-encoded Ed25519 signature over the encoded payload

Example: AXON-eyJ0aWVyIjoiRVZBTFVBVElPTiIsLi4ufQ.6r4f...

caution

Do not attempt to construct or modify license keys manually. Invalid signatures will cause the license to be rejected.

License Expiry and Graceful Degradation

Licenses include an expiry date. When a license expires, AxonFlow does not stop working — it gracefully degrades to Community limits:

After Expiry	Behavior
Tenant policies	Capped at 20 (Community limit)
Organization policies	Disabled (0)
Connectors with custom policies	Capped at 2 (Community limit)
Audit retention	3 days (Community limit)
Existing data	Preserved — nothing is deleted

To restore elevated limits: Set a valid, non-expired license key and restart AxonFlow.

tip

Enterprise compliance features (EU AI Act, SEBI, MAS FEAT, EBA ML) require an active Enterprise license. When an Enterprise license expires, compliance modules become unavailable, but audit data is retained.

Upgrading Between Tiers

Community → Evaluation

1. Register at getaxonflow.com/evaluation-license
2. Set AXONFLOW_LICENSE_KEY in your environment
3. Restart AxonFlow
4. Limits increase immediately — no migration needed

Evaluation → Enterprise

1. Contact [email protected] or subscribe via AWS Marketplace
2. Replace your Evaluation license key with the Enterprise key
3. Restart AxonFlow
4. Enterprise features and unlimited limits are enabled immediately

All upgrades are seamless:

• Existing policies, configurations, and audit data are preserved
• SDKs work identically across all tiers — no code changes required
• No data migration or schema changes needed

Troubleshooting

License Not Recognized

Symptoms: AxonFlow starts in Community mode despite having AXONFLOW_LICENSE_KEY set.

Check:

# Verify the environment variable is set
echo $AXONFLOW_LICENSE_KEY

# Verify it starts with the expected prefix
echo $AXONFLOW_LICENSE_KEY | cut -c1-5
# Expected: AXON-

# Check for extra whitespace or newlines
echo "$AXONFLOW_LICENSE_KEY" | wc -c

Common causes:

• Extra whitespace or newline in the license key
• License key not passed through to the container environment
• Typo in environment variable name (AXONFLOW_LICENSE_KEY, not AXON_LICENSE_KEY)

License Expired

Symptoms: Features that previously worked now return tier validation errors.

Check: Look for LICENSE_EXPIRED in your logs.

Fix:

1. Obtain a renewed license key from your provider
2. Update AXONFLOW_LICENSE_KEY
3. Restart AxonFlow

Policy Limit Exceeded

Symptoms: Creating a new policy returns POLICY_LIMIT_EXCEEDED or ORG_POLICY_LIMIT_EXCEEDED.

Fix:

• Community (20 limit): Upgrade to Evaluation (free) for 50 tenant policies
• Evaluation (50 tenant / 5 org): Upgrade to Enterprise for unlimited policies
• Or remove unused policies to stay within your tier's limit

Security Best Practices

Storing License Keys

Recommended:

• Store in AWS Secrets Manager and reference from your task definition
• Use CloudFormation parameters with NoEcho: true
• Limit IAM access to the secret

Avoid:

• Hardcoding in application code or Docker Compose files committed to git
• Storing in plain text files
• Sharing via unencrypted channels

AWS Secrets Manager Integration

# Create secret
aws secretsmanager create-secret \
  --name axonflow/license-key \
  --description "AxonFlow license key" \
  --secret-string "AXON-eyJ...<payload>.<signature>"

# Reference in ECS task definition using valueFrom:
# arn:aws:secretsmanager:REGION:ACCOUNT:secret:axonflow/license-key

Support

Tier	Support Channel	Response Time
Community	GitHub Issues	Best effort
Evaluation	GitHub Issues	Best effort
Enterprise	Priority support (email + dedicated)	Per SLA

License-related issues: Contact [email protected]

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Related Documentation:

• Feature Matrix: Community vs Evaluation vs Enterprise
• AWS Marketplace Deployment
• SDK Authentication
• Post-Deployment Configuration