Documentation
Copyright & Activation
How license keys work, offline activation, and the meaning of the grace period.
Offline Activation
License verification happens completely offline. The application does not call any server to check, does not send machine identifiers anywhere, and works normally on machines with no Internet � critical for those working in isolated networks.
How it works: the license key is signed with Ed25519; the provider’s public key is embedded in the application. To forge a key, you would need the provider’s private key, which never ships with the product.
Activation
Settings → License, paste the key, then Activate.
Keys have the form:
VMOPS-v1.<payload>.<signature>The payload contains email, name, license version, issue date, and expiry date. After successful activation, the application reads and displays this information so you can verify it.
States
| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Not activated | No key has been entered. |
| Valid | Signature is correct and the key has not expired. |
| In grace period | Expired but still within the 14-day grace period. Works normally with a warning. |
| Expired | Past expiry and past the grace period too. |
| Invalid | The key has the wrong format, or the signature does not match. |
Grace Period
Subscription licenses continue running for an additional 14 days after expiry, with a warning shown in the application.
This is intentional: renewal delays of a few days because accounting is busy happen all the time, and a tool that shuts itself off right when you are handling a customer incident is unacceptable.
Perpetual licenses have no expiry date and never enter this state.
Deactivate
Settings → License → Deactivate removes the key from this machine. Use when moving to another machine. The license key remains valid � paste it again on the new machine.
Privacy
Because verification happens locally, the provider does not know:
- how many machines you installed on,
- how many VMs or which customers you manage,
- whether you have the application open.
The trade-off: there is no “revoke remotely” mechanism for a leaked key. Treat your license key like a password.
Early Testing Phase
At version 0.1.0, the license module runs in permissive mode and places no feature restrictions. You get full functionality while the commercial aspect is being finalized. See the Pricing page for direction.