.. SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0 Copyright 2026 The Linux Foundation Contributions to Projects: DCO and CLAs ======================================= .. toctree:: :maxdepth: 1 Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO) Contributor License Agreements (CLAs) Other Approaches Overview -------- Many discussions of open source licensing focus on the rights that are granted to recipients of the code who are downstream from the project. In other words, if a project is distributed under the "MIT license," then that is the license that users and redistributors of the code receive from the project. The project's license is sometimes called the **outbound license** for the project. From the perspective of the project community, this is the license under which the project code is distributed outward. There is a second piece to the puzzle: How are rights in the project code contributed *to* the project? Put another way, what is the **inbound license** that applies to contributions to the project, and what mechanisms are used in connection with those license grants? Before contributing to a project, it is important to understand its inbound license(s) and contribution mechanisms. And, even if you are not contributing to a project, you may still want to understand how it handles its inbound contribution processes. The two most common approaches used by LF-hosted open source projects are the **Developer Certificate of Origin**, or **DCO**; and **contributor license agreements**, or **CLAs**. The following pages discuss each of these approaches, together with their intended purposes and how they are used in practice. Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO) ------------------------------------- Details about the DCO, its purpose, and how it is used, :doc:`are available here `. Contributor License Agreements (CLAs) ------------------------------------- More information about why and how CLAs are used :doc:`are available here `. Other Approaches ---------------- Finally, alternative approaches to receiving contributions from third parties :doc:`are available here `.