# Sustainability

**Version:** 1.0.0
**Status:** Draft
**Doc-Class:** reference
**Canonical-Path:** `docs/beta/SUSTAINABILITY.md`
**Owns:** project funding model, sponsorship framing, commercial support framing
**Does-Not-Own:** license terms, product roadmap, governance, contributor policy

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## Purpose

cnos is open source. Funding supports:

- maintenance
- releases
- documentation
- review
- long-horizon architecture work
- integration and operational support

This document explains how support works without changing the open-source status of the project.

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## Principles

### 1. Open source stays open

Funding changes the tempo and depth of work. It does not change the project's open-source nature.

### 2. Support is not charity language

The project is not asking for sympathy. It is offering a clear way to fund maintenance and future work.

### 3. Two support paths

There are two valid support paths:

- Individual sponsorship — ongoing maintenance support
- Organizational funding — roadmap work, integration, review, and support

### 4. Public work, explicit priorities

Support helps:

- keep releases moving
- keep docs and process coherent
- reduce maintenance lag
- fund deeper implementation work

It does not buy secrecy or private forks of the project itself.

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## Individual sponsorship

If you want to support ongoing maintenance directly, use GitHub Sponsors:

- <https://github.com/sponsors/usurobor>

This is the simplest path for recurring support.

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## Organizational funding

Organizations can fund work in a more concrete way. Typical scopes:

- implementation of roadmap items
- integration support
- architecture and design review
- reliability and release work
- documentation and process hardening

If you want to discuss organizational support, use the contact path on the maintainer profile or the project's public coordination surface.

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## What funding supports

Typical uses of funding include:

- time for maintenance
- release preparation
- documentation updates
- review and process work
- design and implementation of larger changes
- reducing issue and coherence debt

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## What funding does not mean

Funding does not mean:

- guaranteed control over project direction
- private ownership of the codebase
- bypassing normal review and coherence standards

The project remains open. Funding supports sustained work on it.

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## Current support surface

### Active now

- GitHub Sponsors for individual support

### Later, if needed

A project-level fiscal surface such as Open Collective can be added later for transparent project-level funding. This document can be extended when that surface exists.

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## Short form

cnos is open source. Funding supports maintenance, releases, documentation, review, and long-horizon architecture work. Individuals can sponsor ongoing maintenance. Organizations can fund roadmap work, integration, and support.
