This article records CloudHero’s response to HashiCorp’s August 2023 licensing change. Preserve that date when interpreting the original position. For a current decision, identify the exact product, release, license and intended use; one statement about Terraform does not establish the terms for every HashiCorp product or version.

What changed?

HashiCorp moved future releases of several products from MPL 2.0 to Business Source License 1.1 with an additional use grant. The applicable release’s license is the starting point. Earlier open-source releases and providers can have different terms. Public source availability alone does not mean the same open-source permissions apply.

What should an engineering team inventory?

  • Exact binaries and versions used in CI, customer environments and hosted services.
  • The license and additional terms attached to each release.
  • Whether the product is used internally, to assist customers or as part of an embedded or hosted offering.
  • Support, upgrade, state and provider dependencies involved in changing tools.

How should customers interpret the original statement?

CloudHero’s 2023 statement concerned assisting customers with their own infrastructure. HashiCorp’s licensing FAQ addresses consulting and competitive offerings. Evaluate the actual offering against the current terms with the organization’s licensing owner; the historical statement is not a blanket determination of current contractual rights.

Where does OpenTofu fit?

The project initially called OpenTF became OpenTofu. It offers a separate infrastructure-as-code path. Evaluate provider compatibility, state handling, migration and support before switching. Foundation governance can help with project stewardship but does not remove operational or licensing review.

Sources and further reading