Licensing

Self-hosted: checking is free. The CLI, hooks, and your own stylist serve all work without a license. A license only unlocks the dashboard — see below.

Hosted (we run stylist serve for you): every API token is a paid credential, whether or not you use the dashboard. There’s no free tier for the hosted API — self-host is the free option. Contact your account rep for pricing.

The rest of this page covers the self-host license, which gates the dashboard only.

Applying a license

STYLIST_LICENSE=<key> stylist serve …     # or: serve -license <key>

Your vendor or account contact issues the key for you.

Checking a license

stylist license inspect <key>

Shows who the key is issued to and when it expires.

Without a valid license

The dashboard stays locked and shows no data. Checking, the CLI, and the core API keep working as normal. A missing, expired, or invalid license never stops the server: it logs the problem and leaves /dash locked, nothing else.

Renewal and grace period

• Starting 14 days before expiry, the server logs a renewal reminder on every startup. The dashboard keeps working normally.
• For 14 days after expiry, the dashboard still unlocks, with a stronger warning so a late renewal doesn’t lock you out overnight.
• After that grace period, the dashboard locks like any other invalid license, until you apply a renewed key.

License checks run locally: no license server, no phone-home. This works the same way in an air-gapped or fully offline deployment.