AGPL License Risk for Commercial and SaaS Software
TL;DR: AGPL is a strong copyleft license that can introduce sharing obligations for networked services. Many organizations treat it as a high-risk signal and avoid it in production systems without explicit review.
Why AGPL is often flagged
Engineering and compliance teams usually pay special attention to AGPL because:
- AGPL may require making source code available for networked services that use AGPL components.
- These obligations can conflict with common commercial or closed-source distribution models.
- Many organizations have policies that avoid AGPL in production systems entirely.
How Inspectly treats AGPL
The Dependency License & Risk Inspector highlights AGPL references as a high-risk heuristic so teams can start a conversation with their legal or compliance partners early.
Practical next steps
- Confirm where the AGPL dependency is used (directly or transitively).
- Review the project documentation and license text.
- Engage your legal or compliance team before relying on AGPL components in production.
Surface AGPL Risk in Your Dependency List
Paste your dependency text into the Dependency License & Risk Inspector to see where AGPL (and other strong copyleft licenses) appear.
This content is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice.