CNCF and Synadia Reach an Agreement on NATS
Last month, Synadia, the primary maintainer of the NATS messaging system, proposed to withdraw NATS from the governance of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF).
In short, the company wants to switch subsequent releases of the NATS’ server software from an open source Apache 2 license to the Business Source License (BSL), and to manage new releases of the software itself. Synadia had previously donated the open source NATS to the CNCF in 2018, but has not been happy with the little progress that the software has made there, nor with the financial support its largest users have been slow in providing once it transferred over to CNCF.
The proposal created considerable controversy and was objected to by the CNCF.
Now, the CNCF and Synadia announced that the widely adopted NATS project will continue in the CNCF’s cloud native open source ecosystem with Synadia’s continued support and involvement.
Not So Fast
Synadia had planned to regain control of the nats.io domain, GitHub repositories and the NATS trademark, while leaving the current release of NATS as open source but moving forward with new editions under the BSL.
Nonetheless, the CNCF fired back that open source foundations exist to prevent single vendors from unilaterally reclaiming community assets. CNCF highlighted that, per its charter, projects donated to the foundation must transfer trademark ownership to the Linux Foundation to ensure vendor neutrality.
So far, so good. However, despite accepting reimbursement from CNCF for trademark-related legal expenses, Synadia never completed this transfer. Whoops! Resolving this mess would have created a complex legal standoff, since both parties filed petitions claiming each had the right to the NATS trademark.
Fortunately, Synadia pulled back. On May 1, 2025, CNCF and Synadia jointly announced a resolution aimed at securing the future of the NATS.io project. The agreement marks a significant shift from the previous adversarial tone and sets a collaborative path forward for both the project and its community.
The New Terms of Agreement
Specifically, the CNCF and Synadia have agreed to align on NATS trademark management and project assets. While specific legal details remain confidential, the announcement signals that both parties will work together to ensure that NATS remains accessible and sustainable.
Both organizations reaffirmed their commitment to the open source model. CNCF will continue to support NATS as a community-governed project, while Synadia has pledged to maintain transparency in its ongoing contributions and business models. (No word if the company will go forward with the BSL.)
In a statement, Todd Moore, the Linux Foundation‘s SVP of community operations, said, “As steward of the NATS project, CNCF is committed to upholding open collaboration, neutral governance, and shared ownership so NATS can continue to grow and thrive as a community-driven project.”
Of course, the CNCF added, “As with any open source codebase, if Synadia chooses to fork the NATS server code for a proprietary offering in the future, it will do so under a new name.”
A Deeper Collaboration
For Synadia’s part, Derek Collison, Synadia’s CEO and NATS creator, wrote, “We genuinely look forward to deepening our collaboration with the Linux Foundation and CNCF, ensuring all mature and successful projects within the CNCF receive the robust support they need to thrive.”
The agreement should provide stability and clarity for NATS users, contributors and downstream projects. CNCF and Synadia will collaborate on a transition plan to protect existing users and encourage broader community participation.
The end result is that NATS will remain available under the Apache-2.0 license, and its governance will not be subject to unilateral vendor control.
With the legal and governance questions now settled, the focus shifts back to the technical and community roadmap for NATS. CNCF actively seeks additional maintainers and contributors to diversify the project’s leadership. Synadia, for its part, will continue to innovate and offer commercial services around NATS, but within a framework that respects the project’s open source roots and community expectations.
Interestingly, this news came only days after Redis returned to the open source fold by offering its flagship program under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3 (AGPLv3). Perhaps the trend of open source companies switching to read-only or other restrictive licenses is finally ending. Wouldn’t that be nice?
(Update, May 5: This post has been updated to clarify a number of details around licensing.)
