scottconverse · Oct 21, 2026 · Oct 20, 2026 · Oct 21, 2026 · Oct 21, 2026
diff --git a/AGENTS.md b/AGENTS.md
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
 - Staff-only precedent and interpretation notes must never leak to residents.
 - Out-of-jurisdiction, low-confidence, and determination requests must escalate to planner review.
 - CivicZone depends on CivicCore and CivicCode; CivicCore must never depend on CivicZone.
-- Code is Apache 2.0. Docs are CC BY 4.0.
+- Code is AGPL-3.0-only, with the TownLight Public Institution Exception for qualifying deployments. Docs are CC BY 4.0.
 
 ## Placeholder Package Warning
 

diff --git a/LICENSE b/LICENSE
diff --git a/LICENSE-CODE b/LICENSE-CODE
@@ -1,11 +1,8 @@
-Apache License
-Version 2.0, January 2004
-https://www.apache.org/licenses/
+The source code in this repository is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3 only
+(AGPL-3.0-only), with the TownLight Public Institution Exception 1.0 for qualifying deployments.
 
-Copyright 2026 CivicSuite contributors
+Full license text: LICENSE
+Exception: LICENSE-EXCEPTION.md
+Documentation: CC BY 4.0, see LICENSE-DOCS
 
-Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at:
-
-https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-
-Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.
+Releases published before this change remain available under the license they were published with.
diff --git a/LICENSE-DOCS b/LICENSE-DOCS
diff --git a/LICENSE-EXCEPTION.md b/LICENSE-EXCEPTION.md
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+# TownLight Public Institution Exception 1.0
+
+This is an additional permission under section 7 of the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3 (AGPL-3.0-only), for TownLight code whose copyright holders have expressly granted this exception (the **Covered Code**).
+
+## 1. Eligible public institution
+
+An **Eligible Institution** is (a) a government, governmental department, public authority, or special district; (b) a public school, public college or university, or public library; or (c) a nonprofit organization recognized under U.S. Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3), or an equivalent public-benefit charitable organization under the law of its home country, acting for its own charitable or public-benefit purposes.
+
+## 2. Additional permission for its own deployment
+
+An Eligible Institution may modify and operate Covered Code for its own governmental, educational, or charitable services, including websites accessible to the public, **without complying with section 13's requirement to offer the Corresponding Source of that modified version to remote users**.
+
+An institution may use a contractor to run its deployment under this permission **only if** the contractor acts on the institution's behalf and under its direction and control, and a written agreement entitles the institution to obtain, use, modify, and have a replacement provider operate the Corresponding Source of modifications made by that contractor for the deployment. This permission does not cover the contractor's independently operated, general-purpose or multi-customer commercial software service. Such a service may still be offered under the ordinary AGPL.
+
+## 3. No change to other AGPL obligations
+
+This exception relaxes **only section 13** and only for Covered Code within a qualifying deployment. It does not change AGPL requirements for distributing copies, grant trademark rights, or override any third-party component's license. It does not limit anyone's rights under the AGPL, including commercial rights.
+
+Under section 7 of the AGPL, a person conveying a copy may remove this additional permission from that copy. The AGPL's warranty and liability provisions remain applicable.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
@@ -84,7 +84,9 @@ Staff workflow endpoints require trusted municipal access headers from a configu
 
 ## License
 
-Code is Apache 2.0. Documentation is CC BY 4.0.
+Code: AGPL-3.0-only, with the TownLight Public Institution Exception for qualifying deployments. See [LICENSE](LICENSE) and [LICENSE-EXCEPTION.md](LICENSE-EXCEPTION.md).
+Documentation: CC BY 4.0 ([LICENSE-DOCS](LICENSE-DOCS)).
+
 ## Unreleased connected Zoning Z2
 
 The local development branch adds parcel-scoped allowed/conditional/prohibited-use

diff --git a/README.txt b/README.txt
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ python -m pip install -e ".[dev]"
 python -m pytest -q
 bash scripts/verify-release.sh
 
-Code license: Apache 2.0.
+Code license: AGPL-3.0-only, with the TownLight Public Institution Exception for qualifying deployments. See LICENSE and LICENSE-EXCEPTION.md.
 Documentation license: CC BY 4.0.
 ## Unreleased connected Zoning Z2
 

diff --git a/docs/MILESTONES.md b/docs/MILESTONES.md
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 
 Acceptance criteria:
 - Professional repository docs exist.
-- Apache 2.0 code and CC BY 4.0 docs licenses exist.
+- AGPL-3.0-only code and CC BY 4.0 docs licenses exist.
 - Unified spec section 10 requirements are captured.
 - Documentation and CI gates exist.
 

diff --git a/docs/RECONCILIATION.md b/docs/RECONCILIATION.md
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ Milestone 0 compares this new repository against the CivicSuite unified spec and
 | missing | `docs/index.html` absent | Add honest landing page. | Professional product docs requirement |
 | missing | `USER-MANUAL.md` absent | Add non-technical and IT/user manual. | Professional product docs requirement |
 | missing | `.github/workflows/verify.yml` absent | Add CI gate for tests, docs, placeholder imports, and ruff. | Suite CI convention |
-| missing | `LICENSE-CODE` absent | Add Apache 2.0 code license. | Suite licensing decision |
+| missing | `LICENSE-CODE` absent | Add AGPL-3.0-only code license. | Suite licensing decision |
 | missing | `LICENSE-DOCS` absent | Add CC BY 4.0 docs license. | Suite licensing decision |
 
 ## ADR Queue

diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ version = "0.2.2"
 description = "CivicZone runtime foundation for parcel-aware zoning and land-use Q&A."
 readme = "README.md"
 requires-python = ">=3.11"
-license = { text = "Apache-2.0" }
+license = { text = "AGPL-3.0-only" }
 authors = [
   { name = "CivicSuite contributors" }
 ]