IP and technology · Technology counsel, engineering lead, in-house legal
Audit open source licences before a code release
Zennor Robotics is about to ship firmware to customers for the first time and nobody has looked at the open source in it. The grid reads the dependency list and the licence texts, then sorts them by what distribution actually triggers.
- Agents
- IP & Technology, Audit & Risk
- First draft
- A licence classification across the whole dependency list comes back from one grid run.
The problem
Step 01 of 05
Load the dependency list and the licence texts
The generated dependency manifest, the licence files it points to and the product's distribution model go on one matter.
Project Halcyon: SPA warranties and disclosure
Buy-side warranty review, disclosure analysis and cited due-diligence grid.
- Client
- Halcyon Bidco Ltd
- Reference
- WC-2026-0412
- Practice area
- Corporate / M&A
- Jurisdiction
- England and Wales
- Responsible partner
- E. Vance
No conflict check on file.Chat, on this matter
Compare warranties with the disclosure letter.
Three high-priority exceptions require action: the unregistered charge, the change-of-control right and the tribunal claim.
Send a message… (@ to mention tools)BalancedPrepare for- 25 Aug
Disclosure exceptions matrix
Chat
- 21 Aug
Disclosure exceptions matrix
Run · completed · 560 credits
- 18 Aug
Project Halcyon: Disclosure Letter
Document · indexed
- 16 Aug
Project Halcyon: Share Purchase Agreement
Document · indexed
- 4 Aug
Matter opened
Opened
Step 02 of 05
Build the audit columns
Columns cover licence family, whether obligations trigger on distribution, notice requirements, source availability, patent terms and any use restriction.
Document Parties and effective dateTEXT Term and renewalTEXT Limitation of liabilityTEXT Governing lawTEXT nda-hartwell-meridian.txt saas-agreement-northgate.txt board-minutes-hartwell.txt Step 03 of 05
Run the audit
Every component is answered against every column, with the licence text quoted behind each cell and unresolved licence identifiers marked rather than assumed.
Document Parties and effective dateTEXT Term and renewalTEXT Limitation of liabilityTEXT Governing lawTEXT nda-hartwell-meridian.txt saas-agreement-northgate.txt board-minutes-hartwell.txt Step 04 of 05
Read the components that block
Two components carry strong copyleft terms that reach the firmware as it is currently built, and four more require notices the product does not yet include.
Document Parties and effective dateTEXT Term and renewalTEXT Limitation of liabilityTEXT Governing lawTEXT nda-hartwell-meridian.txt saas-agreement-northgate.txt board-minutes-hartwell.txt Step 05 of 05
Take the release plan
The Audit & Risk Agent runs an Executive Brief for the release board, separating what must change before shipping from what can follow in the next build.
Agent
Jurisdiction
Prepare for
Deliver as
Instruction
What should the agent look for?Documents
Drop a contract, or pick one from the matter
Also on the matter
- Offer_letter_v3.pdf2 pages
- Staff_handbook_2025.docx61 pages
- Board_minute_14_Aug.pdf3 pages
Platform model · zero data retention · audit register on
What comes back
A document, not a transcript.
- A grid of every component with its licence family and the obligations distribution triggers.
- The two components that block the release as currently built, named first with the licence wording quoted.
- A notices file requirement listing each component that needs attribution in the shipped product.
- A release brief separating blocking items from those that can be handled in the next build.
Authorities it checks
- Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, s 16
- Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, s 50A
What it does not do
- It does not scan the codebase. It reads the dependency manifest supplied and says what that manifest does and does not cover.
- It does not determine whether linking creates a derivative work as a matter of engineering fact; it names what the engineers must confirm.
- It does not remove or replace a component, and it does not publish a notices file.