chore(license): relicense from MIT to AGPL-3.0-or-later

[parth0025]

Summary

Relicenses AlianHub from MIT to AGPL-3.0-or-later, aligning with the licensing model used by similar open-source project management systems (e.g., Plane).

Why now: while the contributor base is small (Alian Software employees only), relicensing is straightforward. Once external contributors join, every contributor must consent to a license change, which is operationally hard at scale.

Why AGPL-3.0: protects against SaaS competitors rebranding AlianHub's code under closed licenses while keeping the project fully free and open for self-hosters. Enables future dual-licensing for enterprises that cannot use copyleft.

Files changed (9)

File	Change
LICENSE	MIT (21 lines) → canonical AGPL-3.0 text (660 lines, includes §13 Network-Use clause)
COPYRIGHT (new)	Alian Software copyright notice (2025-2026)
package.json	"ISC" → "AGPL-3.0-or-later" + author field
frontend/package.json	license field added (was missing) + author field
README.md	Badge + license section with plain-English AGPL implications + commercial-license contact
README_DOC.md	License section updated
CLAUDE.md	2 MIT references → AGPL-3.0
.claude/FOLDER-STRUCTURE.md	Updated, added COPYRIGHT row
.claude/REFERENCES.md	Updated, added COPYRIGHT row

What AGPL-3.0 means in practice

• ✅ Self-host AlianHub freely
• ✅ Modify it privately without publishing changes
• ⚠️ Run a modified version as a public network service → must publish modifications under AGPL
• 📩 Need a different license for closed-source / commercial use → contact via the email in README

Test plan

• After merge, GitHub License detector shows "AGPL-3.0" on the repo home page
• npm install runs without license-related warnings (root and frontend/)
• package.json and frontend/package.json parse as valid JSON
• README badge renders correctly on GitHub
• Confirm no remaining MIT references (verified locally; reviewer can re-run grep -nE "MIT [Ll]icens|License-MIT|MIT-green")

Notes for reviewers

• License text is the canonical GNU AGPL-3.0, verified byte-for-byte against Plane's LICENSE.txt (md5 47f46ca0044567a2cfb013881642454c).
• SPDX identifier AGPL-3.0-or-later chosen over the deprecated AGPL-3.0 for SPDX-modern compliance and future flexibility.
• Per-source-file AGPL headers are intentionally not added in this PR (would touch hundreds of files) — can be a separate follow-up if needed.

Rollout

Step 1 of the open-source repo maintenance baseline initiative. Next steps (separate PRs): branching strategy, PR/branch name formats, release process, package publishing, README polish, discoverability.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

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