Everything that runs on your machine is free and MIT-licensed, permanently. Everything that calls our backend is Pro, because each call spends real API budget. That is the entire rule.
A trial of Pro is a stranger spending our OpenAI budget. One tier, priced to cover the calls, is the honest version of that — and the free CLI is not a sample of it. It is the product, complete, and it stays that way whether or not you ever subscribe.
Subscribing emails a licence key. Where the CLI reads it from — env var, a login command, or both — is still being decided.
No. Everything local is MIT-licensed and already on your machine. Cancelling turns off --idea and nothing else — projects you generated are untouched.
Every --idea call spends real API budget. A trial is a stranger spending it. One honest price is the alternative to a quota nobody can predict.
That is what self-hosting the backend would allow — but whether the server is published is still an open decision. Until it is settled, assume the hosted service is the only route.
The CLI is MIT and public. Whether the server that answers --idea is published — MIT, source-available, or closed — has not been decided. We would rather say that than imply either.
Not yet. One tier, one person. If teams need it, that is a later conversation and not a hidden upsell in this one.
Paddle handles checkout, and is the merchant of record — they are the seller, they remit VAT where it applies, and "Paddle" is what shows on your card statement. A licence key is emailed once the subscription activates. There is no card form on this site.
The licence is checked before a request is made, so an unsubscribed run costs nothing and fails instantly. Neither of these is styled as an error — you have not done anything wrong.
Every proposal spends real OpenAI budget, so this one flag is subscription-only — there is no free allowance to draw down. The wizard, all 16 categories, the presets, the archetype and every other command stay free and keyless.
AI_PROJECT_BOOTSTRAP_LICENSE_KEY not set
The key is valid but the subscription behind it ended, so the service declined the call. Nothing local changed — the CLI you already have keeps working exactly as it did.
402 subscription_inactive · key ends … 4f2a
The three genuine failures — unreachable, model error, rejected proposal — are documented on the --idea docs page.
Install nothing, sign up for nothing. Subscribe later only if you want a stack proposed from a sentence.