keygen-sh/keygen-api

Health v2 · maintenance only

Flags: no_license

Adoption not part of the score

1568 stars · 126 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-30, confidence not recorded

Keygen is a fair source software licensing and distribution API that lets developers add license key validation, entitlements, device activation, and release distribution to their products. It can be used via managed Keygen Cloud or self-hosted as Community/Enterprise editions built on Ruby on Rails.

Use cases

• add license key validation to a desktop app
• self-host a software licensing API
• implement floating or node-locked licenses
• distribute signed software releases from CI/CD
• manage device activations and entitlements
• license software in offline or air-gapped environments
• implement trial and per-seat licensing models

When to choose

• you need licensing infrastructure for desktop, server, or on-premise software without building it in-house
• you want a self-hostable licensing API with a free community edition
• you need multiple licensing models (perpetual, timed, floating, node-locked, feature, metered)
• you want secure software release distribution with signed binaries

When to avoid

• you need a fully open-source (OSI-approved) license — Keygen is fair source under the FCL
• you only need simple license file generation without an API
• you require enterprise features like audit logs, SSO, or custom rate limits without a paid EE license or cloud plan

Facets

service · maturity active

api-framework auth webhook self-hosted developer-tools developer-tools apis security self-hosted backend self-hosted cloud ruby windows software-licensing license-keys license-validation device-activation entitlements software-distribution fair-source rails-api license-files offline-licensing floating-licenses node-locked-licenses docker web-server linux macos

Member repositories

For agents

markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="keygen-sh/keygen-api")