target-revenue/INTENT.md

Target Revenue Framework — INTENT

Purpose

This repository exists to establish the Target Revenue Framework (TRF) as a practical, trustworthy, and extensible foundation for financing exploratory product-driven software development while creating a transparent path into the permissive software commons.

The framework combines a Target Revenue Source License (TRSL) with a Trust Service. A defined software development phase may be monetized until its declared target has been satisfied through Development Credits and Remission Credits. At that point, the governed Milestone Release automatically and irrevocably becomes available under its declared permissive Future License.

Primary Utility

The primary utility of the repository is to provide a canonical mechanism through which software producers can:

• declare a bounded development Phase and Milestone Release;
• define an immutable Initial Target for that Phase;
• distinguish development monetization from operations and other monetization activities;
• allocate qualifying payments transparently as Development Credits;
• reduce an unsatisfied target over time through a published remission policy;
• publish extensions, ledger states, metrics, and conversion evidence through a Trust Service;
• convert the Milestone Release automatically when its Outstanding Target reaches zero.

The framework should make the central bargain easy to understand:

Commercial beneficiaries fund the creation and early availability of a software improvement; once the declared target is satisfied, the governed release becomes permissively open source.

Intended Users

The framework is intended for:

• independent developers and maintainers exploring product opportunities;
• open-source and source-available projects seeking transparent development monetization;
• product companies financing reusable software capabilities;
• commercial users willing to fund early access or development rights;
• sponsors, service providers, operators, auditors, and ecosystem participants;
• Trust Service providers and future federation operators;
• legal, financial, and technical practitioners implementing or evaluating the framework.

Strategic Role in the System

The Target Revenue Framework is intended to become a monetization canon for exploratory software products.

It should provide a small stable kernel that separates:

• legal rights from commercial offers;
• development monetization from operations monetization;
• captured Development Credit from time-based Remission Credit;
• automatic license conversion from discretionary Trust Service attestation;
• canonical framework rules from extensible monetization profiles.

The initial Trust Service should be centrally operated so the framework can evolve coherently through practical use. Its data formats, calculations, identifiers, signatures, and evidence structures should nevertheless be designed for independent verification, replication, and eventual federation.

Strategic Boundaries

This repository owns:

• the durable concepts and terminology of the Target Revenue Framework;
• the Target Revenue Source License model and future legal drafts;
• the Phase, target, credit, remission, and conversion lifecycle;
• the canonical rules for payment allocation and target satisfaction;
• the extension contract for monetization profiles;
• the Trust Service protocol, schemas, registries, metrics, and attestation model;
• the governance and federation path of the framework;
• reference documentation, examples, and conformance guidance.

This repository does not own:

• the products or software releases governed by individual TRSL Phases;
• customer-specific commercial, hosting, support, consulting, or service agreements;
• general tax, bookkeeping, or statutory revenue-recognition rules;
• a universal pricing model for every product or market;
• the operational implementation of every future Trust Service provider;
• guarantees that a Phase will reach its commercial target or become profitable;
• restrictions on services or hosted operations after a release converts to a permissive license.

Design Principles

Minimal constitutional core

The normative kernel should remain small enough to explain and apply consistently. A new rule belongs in the core only when it is universal, interoperability-critical, and necessary to preserve trust.

Automatic and irreversible conversion

The Milestone Release converts when the Outstanding Target reaches zero. Conversion must not depend on discretionary approval and must not be revoked by later corrections, refunds, policy changes, or new Phases.

Explicit economic allocation

Payments contribute to a development target only through an explicit Development Credit allocation. Operations, services, consulting, ideation, sponsorship, and other revenue remain independent unless a published rule allocates part of them to a Phase.

Transparent remission

Degeneration of the commercial protection opportunity is represented as Remission Credit, not as captured revenue. The Initial Target remains immutable and historically visible.

License and Trust Service separation

The license establishes legal rights and the Conversion Event. The Trust Service publishes declarations, extensions, ledger facts, metrics, evidence, and attestations. It provides factual certainty without becoming a discretionary licensing authority.

Extensibility without fragmentation

New monetization ideas should be expressible as registered or canonical profiles through a constrained extension interface. Extensions may define value, pricing, allocation, recognition, reversal, and evidence rules, but may not redefine the core concepts or conversion mechanism.

Open verification and federation readiness

Authoritative records should be signed, append-only, exportable, and calculable through open deterministic rules. Centralized operation is an initial learning strategy, not a permanent dependency.

Permanent prior freedom

A later Phase may govern new development but must never withdraw rights already granted for an earlier Milestone Release.

Maturity Target

The repository should mature from a concept and experimental legal-economic model into a dependable framework that provides:

1. a coherent and legally reviewed Target Revenue Source License;
2. stable normative terminology and phase semantics;
3. canonical Phase Manifest, ledger, extension, metrics, and attestation schemas;
4. a reference centralized Trust Service suitable for real projects and transactions;
5. auditable rules for Development Credits, Remission Credits, corrections, and conversion;
6. a maintained catalog of canonical and registered monetization extensions;
7. independent verification tools and portable phase evidence packages;
8. a protocol and governance model supporting multiple interoperable Trust Service providers;
9. a federated ecosystem in which records can be replicated, verified, challenged, preserved, and discovered without dependence on a single operator.

The mature framework should be understandable enough for small projects, rigorous enough for commercial adoption, and open enough to evolve into shared infrastructure for software development monetization.

Stability Note

This document defines the durable purpose and intended direction of the Target Revenue Framework repository.

INTENT is stable and aspirational. SCOPE.md, specifications, workplans, and implementation documents should describe what is actually being designed or built at a particular time. A gap between INTENT and current SCOPE is expected while the framework matures and should be treated as a visible maturity signal rather than resolved by weakening this document. Stage 0 scope, sequencing, and “done enough” criteria are maintained in SCOPE.md (as of 2026-07-28: concept + orientation specs + offline foundation; not production legal text or hosted Trust Service).

Changes to this file should represent a deliberate shift in what the Target Revenue Framework is meant to become, not ordinary scope evolution, implementation learning, or release planning.