Skip to content

What the Licence Means for You

pg_health_framework's own original code is published under the MIT Licence — one of the most permissive open-source licences in common use. Its check-body SQL — the actual data-collection queries inside the built-in checks — is adapted from a separate upstream project, pgEdge's pg-healthcheck, and carries that project's own licence terms alongside it. This chapter explains what both mean for you in plain English. It is a summary for convenience only, and is not a substitute for the full legal text and the Third-Party Notices, which are what you are actually bound by.

This project's own code — MIT Licence

Everything in this project apart from the check-body SQL described below — the schema design, the catalog and suite registration functions, the collection and evaluation engines, the events layer, and retention — is original code, licensed under the MIT Licence:

  • Use pg_health_framework, for free, for absolutely any purpose — personal, commercial, internal, or resold as part of your own product.
  • Copy it, and share those copies with anyone.
  • Modify it — change the source code in any way you like.
  • Merge it into your own codebase, alongside other software.
  • Publish your own version of it.
  • Distribute it — give or sell copies to others.
  • Sub-licence it — pass on the same permissions to people you give it to, or attach your own additional terms to your own distribution.
  • Sell copies of it, whether unmodified or as part of something larger you charge for.

The entire obligation in return is to keep the original copyright notice, and the full licence text, included in every copy or substantial portion you distribute — there is no requirement to publish your own changes, credit Pebble IT in your product, or share anything back.

The check-body SQL — adapted from pgEdge's pg-healthcheck

The actual data-collection logic inside the built-in check functions — the queries against PostgreSQL's own internal statistics and catalog views — is a PL/pgSQL port of equivalent logic from pgEdge's separate, upstream pg-healthcheck project, distributed under The PostgreSQL Licence — another permissive, MIT/BSD-style licence. The seeded default threshold values, mined from that same upstream project's own tuned defaults, carry the same attribution. See the Third-Party Notices chapter for the complete, file-by-file breakdown of exactly what's original to this project versus adapted from upstream, and the full required licence text for that portion.

Practically, this changes very little for you as a user of pg_health_framework: both licences are permissive, and both let you use, copy, modify, and distribute freely. The main practical difference is a bookkeeping one — if you redistribute this project, both licence texts (this project's own MIT licence, and the PostgreSQL Licence's required notice) need to travel with it, since both bodies of code are present.

What you are not getting, under either licence

  • No warranty. The software is provided "as is" — nobody involved, whether Pebble IT or pgEdge, promises it is fit for any particular purpose, or free of defects.
  • No liability. Neither Pebble IT nor pgEdge is liable for any claim, damages, or other consequence arising from your use of the software.

This is the standard trade-off behind almost all permissive open-source licences: you get complete freedom to use and build on the software, in exchange for accepting that it comes with no guarantees attached.

If any of this differs from what your organisation's legal or procurement team needs to hear, direct them to the full licence text and the Third-Party Notices — both are short, and together they are the actual governing documents.

Continue to The Full Licence Text.