feat: make FastLED Reciprocal License project agnostic

[zackees]

Summary

• define the repository as the canonical source for reusable license text, without claiming a universal owner of adopting software
• separate the text-maintainer role from each adopter contributor and rightsholder who licenses and enforces their own covered software
• make the generic AI Coding Agent Notice a mandatory part of every adopting project and verify its exact digest
• publish the corrected draft as 1.0-rc2 while pinning the historical rc1 authority to its immutable source
• align agent documentation and research routing with the project-agnostic architecture
• rewrite issue Strategy: project-agnostic GPL/free-software compatibility exception #10 and close FastLED-codebase implementation issues Feasibility: MINIMP3_FIXED_POINT — CC0 fixed-point minimp3 mode, golden-tested vs float, to replace RPSL libhelix_mp3 #13 and Execution plan: vendor minimp3, optimize to Helix parity, SIMD past Helix, delete libhelix_mp3 (phased, gated) #14 as out of scope

Validation

• uv run ruff check tools/license_headers.py tests/test_license_headers.py
• uv run pyright tools/license_headers.py tests/test_license_headers.py
• targeted license-header pytest selection: 7 passed
• uv run tools/license_headers.py check --profile release --no-cache
• git diff --check
• independent clud-review: clean

Legal status

Attorney review remains pending. This change supplies research and drafting material; it is not legal advice or legal approval.

Known unrelated test issue

A broader test-file run still encounters the existing Windows zccache process-result failure in test_zccache_fingerprint_success_failure_and_invalidation. The scoped release and consistency checks pass.

Refs #8, #10, #25

Summary by CodeRabbit

• New Features

  • Introduced Reciprocal License 1.0-rc2 with clarified commercial-transfer, upstream-source, and licensing terms.
  • Added a required AI Coding Agent Notice covering authorization, source identification, reproducibility, and confidentiality.
  • Added integrity verification for the required AI notice and license policy metadata.

• Documentation

  • Updated license guidance, adoption materials, provenance records, legal review status, and historical release references.

• Bug Fixes

  • Updated license headers, notices, identifiers, checksums, and validation tests for rc2 consistency.

[coderabbitai]

Caution

Review failed

The pull request is closed.

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: defaults

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro Plus

Run ID: 456f2df4-0dda-4495-bf9b-8978d08f7956

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 40ee710 and 47d6dc1.

📒 Files selected for processing (17)

• AGENTS.md
• ARTIFACTS.sha256
• LEGAL-REVIEW.md
• LICENSE
• LICENSE-AI-AGENT-INSTRUCTIONS.md
• NOTICE-TEMPLATE-MIT-LEGACY.txt
• NOTICE-TEMPLATE.txt
• PROVENANCE.md
• README.md
• ai-policy.toml
• header-policy.schema.json
• header-policy.toml
• paralegal-research/AGENTS.md
• paralegal-research/authorities/licenses/fastled-reciprocal-license-v1-rc1.md
• paralegal-research/search-logs/license-landscape-2026-08-25.md
• tests/test_license_headers.py
• tools/license_headers.py

---

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The license advances from 1.0-rc1 to 1.0-rc2. It generalizes covered software terms, adds a required AI Coding Agent Notice, validates its SHA-256 digest, updates adoption guidance, and records revised legal and provenance reviews.

Changes

1.0-rc2 License Adoption

Layer / File(s)	Summary
License contract and AI notice LICENSE, LICENSE-AI-AGENT-INSTRUCTIONS.md, NOTICE-TEMPLATE*.txt	The license now defines general Covered Software and Reciprocal Terms. It adds Exhibit C as a required AI Coding Agent Notice with authorization, preservation, publication, confidentiality, and escalation instructions.
Notice policy enforcement and validation header-policy.schema.json, header-policy.toml, ai-policy.toml, tools/license_headers.py, tests/test_license_headers.py, ARTIFACTS.sha256	The policy records the notice digest and rc2 identifier. The header tool validates the configured notice path and digest before processing. Tests cover missing, valid, altered, and nested notices, plus rc2 consistency.
Adoption guidance and legal records README.md, AGENTS.md, PROVENANCE.md, LEGAL-REVIEW.md, paralegal-research/*	Documentation and research records distinguish license-text stewardship from software ownership and enforcement rights. Legal review, immutable rc1 references, provenance, and rc2 adoption requirements are updated.

Estimated code review effort: 3 (Moderate) | ~30 minutes

Sequence Diagram(s)

sequenceDiagram
  participant HeaderTool
  participant Policy
  participant NoticeFile
  HeaderTool->>Policy: Load ai_document and ai_document_sha256
  HeaderTool->>NoticeFile: Read configured notice
  NoticeFile-->>HeaderTool: Return notice contents
  HeaderTool->>HeaderTool: Compare SHA-256 digest
  HeaderTool-->>Policy: Continue or return validation error

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✨ Finishing Touches

📝 Generate docstrings

• Create stacked PR
• Commit on current branch

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch fix/generic-license-stewardship-rc2

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