Arkyn Legal Documentation
Last Updated: July 10, 2026
This file is the index for Arkyn's legal documentation. It explains what each document covers, how they relate to one another, and where to find the shared definitions used throughout.
1. Purpose of This Documentation
Arkyn is an open-source ecosystem of React and TypeScript packages (@arkyn/components, @arkyn/server, @arkyn/shared, @arkyn/templates, and future additions), together with its documentation website, brand, and associated assets. This legal documentation exists to clearly separate two things that are often confused in open-source projects:
- What is free and open — Arkyn's software source code, licensed under Apache License 2.0.
- What is reserved — Arkyn's name, logos, documentation content, and brand identity, which are not automatically licensed just because the code is open source.
Rather than scattering this across many small files, Arkyn's legal documentation is organized into a small number of comprehensive documents, each covering a closely related group of topics.
2. Quick Navigation
- License — The Apache License 2.0 that governs Arkyn's software source code, and what it does and does not cover.
- Brand, Trademark & Copyright Policy — Trademark policy, copyright notice, and brand/visual identity usage rules — everything the software license doesn't cover.
- Terms of Use — Terms of use for the Arkyn website and Documentation, including the Acceptable Use Policy.
- Privacy Policy — Privacy policy and cookie usage, covering the website, contact forms, and optional package logging features.
- Security Policy — How to report a security vulnerability, responsible disclosure guidelines, and safe harbor for researchers.
- Contributor Terms — The Developer Certificate of Origin contributors certify when submitting code or documentation.
3. How These Documents Relate to Each Other
These six documents are designed to be read together, not in isolation. As a rule:
- LICENSE.md governs the Software (source code).
- BRAND.md governs the name, logos, brand, and Documentation content — everything LICENSE.md explicitly excludes.
- TERMS.md governs your use of the website and Documentation as a reader or visitor, and incorporates BRAND.md's rules by reference rather than repeating them.
- PRIVACY.md governs personal data, whether collected through the website or through optional, developer-configured logging features in the Software.
- SECURITY.md governs vulnerability reporting, and cross-references TERMS.md's Acceptable Use Policy for the boundaries of authorized security research.
- CONTRIBUTING_LEGAL.md governs contributions you submit back to the project, and depends on the license terms defined in LICENSE.md.
No document repeats another's substantive rules in full; where a topic is covered elsewhere, you'll find a cross-reference instead.
4. Definitions
The following terms are used consistently across all of Arkyn's legal documentation. Individual documents may add a small number of document-specific terms, but these core definitions apply everywhere:
- "Arkyn" refers to the open-source ecosystem as a whole — its packages, source code, documentation, website, brand, and associated assets — always referred to by this single name (not alternated with "the Project," "the Library," or "the Framework").
- "Software" or "the Work" means the source code of Arkyn's packages (
@arkyn/components, @arkyn/server, @arkyn/shared, @arkyn/templates, and any other package published under the @arkyn npm scope), as distributed via npm and GitHub.
- "Documentation" means the content published on the Arkyn documentation website (currently
docs.arkyn.dev), including guides, API references, and code examples, as distinct from the Software itself.
- "Site" means the Arkyn website and Documentation together, as distinct from the Software.
- "Marks" means the word "Arkyn," Arkyn's logos, wordmarks, and other source-identifying symbols.
- "Brand Assets" means Arkyn's logos, color palette, typography, design system as visually presented, and related visual identity elements.
- "Content" means text, illustrations, screenshots, videos, and other creative material published in the Documentation, on the website, or in official marketing materials.
- "Maintainer," "we," "us," and "our" refer to Lucas Gonçalves, the creator and maintainer of Arkyn, acting in that capacity.
- "You" and "Your" mean the person or entity reading, using, or interacting with Arkyn's Software, Site, or Documentation, as context requires (in LICENSE.md specifically, this has the more precise meaning given in the Apache License text itself).
- "Contribution" means any code, documentation, translation, design asset, or other material submitted to an official Arkyn repository.
5. Which Document Applies to My Situation?
6. Contact
For any question that doesn't clearly fit one of the documents above, or if you're unsure which document applies: lucasgoncalves@arkyn.dev.
