VibePen
Contents
  1. You still own your work
  2. Making a Pen **public** means other people can use it
  3. Making a Pen **unlisted** means nobody gets that permission
  4. Before you publish anything
  5. When you use someone else's Pen
  6. When this started
  7. Summary for an AI agent

What happens when you publish a Pen

Plain language, no lawyers. The binding version is Section 6 of the Terms of Service; if the two ever disagree, that one wins.

You still own your work#

Publishing on VibePen doesn't transfer anything to us. You keep whatever rights you have in your code. We get permission to host it, run it, and show it off — that's it.

Making a Pen public means other people can use it#

When you set a Pen to public, you're giving everyone permission to use, copy, change and build on that code — including in commercial projects, and including by their AI. That permission is the MIT Licence, the same short, permissive licence used across open source. In exchange, people who reuse your code have to keep your name on it.

This is the point of VibePen. Public Pens show their full source, people copy them, agents read them, and the good ones get built on. If you don't want that, don't publish it publicly.

Three things to know:

  • You can't take the permission back. You can unlist or delete a Pen at any time, and we'll stop serving it — but copies people already made stay theirs to use. Publishing publicly is a one-way door.

  • The permission holds even if nobody owns the code. Whether AI-generated work carries copyright at all is unsettled. So alongside the licence, you're agreeing not to use any rights you might turn out to have to stop people reusing your public Pen. Either way, someone who builds on it is safe — which is the only way remixing works on a site like this.

  • You can set your own terms instead. Put a LICENSE file at the top level of your Pen and it governs instead of the default — stricter or looser, your call.

What attribution actually means. MIT asks one thing of people who reuse your code: they keep your copyright line and the licence text with their copy — Copyright (c) 2026 , carried into their source or licence file. It does not mean they have to ask you, pay you, credit you on their site, tell you, or share back what they build. They can use it commercially, change it past recognition, and ship the result under different terms. A line in the source is the whole of what you get.

Making a Pen unlisted means nobody gets that permission#

An unlisted Pen is live at its URL and shareable, but it isn't in the gallery, search, or your profile — and it carries no licence. Someone who has the link can look; they don't get permission to reuse it.

On a free account, unlisted is a draft, not private hosting: after 14 days we'll ask you to publish it or delete it. We will never make a Pen public for you. Not by mistake, not on a schedule, not ever.

Before you publish anything#

You need the right to publish it. Not necessarily to own it — just to be allowed to put it out. If you pulled in someone else's code, follow its licence. If you used a template, a tutorial, or someone's design, make sure you're allowed to.

AI wrote it? You're still responsible. AI models sometimes produce code, art or interfaces that closely copy something real. That's an infringement even though a machine typed it, and "my agent published it" isn't a defence. Skim what you publish.

Your agent is you. Anything published with a token from your account counts as published by you. Making a Pen public always takes an explicit confirmation — don't let an agent tick that box unless you actually decided to go public.

Don't publish secrets. API keys, passwords, other people's personal information. Public Pens show their full source, and copies survive deletion.

When you use someone else's Pen#

Permission comes from the person who wrote it, not from us. For a public Pen that's the MIT Licence: use it for anything, keep the author's copyright notice in the code, and say where it came from. Check for a LICENSE file in the Pen — if there is one, it wins.

Two warnings. Unlisted Pens carry no licence at all, even if you have the link. And we don't check who wrote any of this — a Pen being on VibePen isn't our assurance that reusing it is safe. If you're building something that matters, look at the code first.

When this started#

These terms took effect on 14 August 2026, and the default licence applies to Pens made public from that date onward. Accepting them is a condition of publishing. If you made something public before then and you want it covered, publish a new version of it or add a LICENSE file saying so.

Summary for an AI agent#

VIBEPEN CONTENT LICENSING — SUMMARY

Publishing:
- The human account holder owns their content; VibePen gets a hosting licence.
- Public Pen  -> MIT Licence granted to everyone, plus a covenant not to assert
                 any rights the author may hold. Works whether or not the code
                 is copyrightable. Irrevocable for copies already made.
- Unlisted Pen -> no outbound licence. A URL is not permission.
- A LICENSE file at the Pen root overrides the default.
- Publishing publicly requires explicit human approval
  (confirm_public_visibility). Never set it on your own initiative.
- The human is responsible for everything you publish under their token,
  including infringement and including content you generated.

Reusing:
- Public Pens made public on or after 14 August 2026: MIT. Keep the author's
  copyright and permission notice in any copy or substantial portion, and
  credit the source Pen.
- Check for a LICENSE file in the Pen first; it overrides the default.
- Public Pens made public before 14 August 2026: no default licence. Ask the
  author before reusing.
- Unlisted Pens: no licence. Do not reuse.
- VibePen does not verify authorship or warrant that reuse is safe.