Editions and Licensing

Editions and Licensing

RTK ships as three downloads. Which one you want depends on what you need and which licence your organisation accepts.

Download	Binary	Licence	Contents
rtk-<target>	rtk	Apache-2.0 + BUSL-1.1	Hook core, every command filter, and the compression engine
rtk-oss-<target>	rtk	Apache-2.0 only	Hook core and every command filter. No engine.
rtk-proxy-<target>	rtk-proxy	BUSL-1.1	The RTK Proxy daemon. Never bundled with either rtk.

The two rtk downloads install a binary with the same name, so hooks, scripts and agent configuration work unchanged across editions. They cannot be installed side by side.

Which one should I install?

Most people want the default rtk. It is the complete tool and free for production use — see the grant below.

Install the Apache-2.0 edition if your organisation requires that every binary it runs carry an OSI-approved licence, or if you intend to redistribute RTK as part of a commercial offering.

Add rtk-proxy only if you want the RTK Proxy. It is independent of both rtk editions.

What the Apache-2.0 edition leaves out

It is the same binary minus the compression engine. What that removes:

Absent	What you lose
rtk pipeline	Inspecting, validating, explaining and benchmarking pipelines
rtk methods	Listing registered compression methods
rtk tasks	Listing and running delegation tasks
PostToolUse compression	Compressing the output of an agent’s own Read and MCP tools
Pipeline files	A pipeline.toml on disk is inert, exactly as in a build predating the engine

What stays is the part you use all day. The PreToolUse rewrite hook — the mechanism that turns your agent’s git status into rtk git status — is Apache-2.0 and behaves identically. So does every command filter, rtk init, rtk gain, rtk discover, rtk session, rtk recall, and rtk llm-proxy.

The practical difference: bash output is filtered exactly as in the full edition; output your agent reads through its own file and MCP tools is not.

Installing the Apache-2.0 edition

Set RTK_EDITION=oss for the install script:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rtk-ai/rtk/refs/heads/master/install.sh | RTK_EDITION=oss sh

Homebrew ships it as a separate formula:

brew install rtk-ai/tap/rtk-oss

Debian and RPM packages are published as rtk-oss.

The two editions cannot coexist — both install /usr/bin/rtk. Homebrew declares this explicitly (conflicts_with), so brew refuses the second install with a clear message. The deb and rpm packages carry no declared Conflicts:, so dpkg/rpm stop on the file collision instead. Uninstall one edition before installing the other.

From a source checkout:

cargo build --release --no-default-features

--no-default-features removes rtk-engine from the dependency graph entirely — no BUSL-licensed code is compiled into the binary.

Licence terms

• Apache-2.0 covers the rtk CLI and its filters.
• BUSL-1.1 covers the compression engine and the rtk-proxy daemon.

The BUSL Additional Use Grant permits free production use, including running the daemon. What it does not permit is offering RTK — or a derivative — to third parties as a commercial product or service.

For resale, embedding in a commercial offering, or any use the grant does not cover, contact contact@rtk-ai.app.

Licence files travel with every download: the rtk archive carries LICENSE and LICENSE-ENGINE, the Apache-2.0 archive carries LICENSE alone, and the daemon archive carries its own LICENSE.