Srasta-operated issuer
Creates license records, signs JWTs, renews licenses, revokes licenses, records issuance history, syncs CRM, and drives trial emails.
License & Trial Lifecycle
Srasta treats licensing as an operating lifecycle, not a checkout page.
Trials, pilots, renewals, entitlement checks, expiry posture, node-cap signals, CRM handoff, and audit evidence are part of the same customer lifecycle. The customer deployment validates locally; Srasta keeps the issuance, renewal, and conversion workflow operationally visible.
Lifecycle Flow
One path connects marketing interest to governed runtime usage.
Srasta separates public issuance from private validation. A prospect can request a trial, receive a signed entitlement, install the platform, and begin sending runtime signals without forcing the customer cluster to host the license authority.
Separation of Responsibility
The issuer is Srasta-side. Validation is customer-side.
Customer infrastructure should not need to run a license authority. Srasta issues signed entitlements from its own service, and the deployed platform validates those entitlements locally through the embedded public key and runtime configuration.
Customer deployment
Stores the license key, validates signature and claims locally, exposes license status to Admin, and adjusts runtime posture.
Operator Admin
Shows trial, valid, expired, grace, read-only, edition, customer, seat, node, expiry, warning, and error state.
Audit and support
License grants, renewals, clears, denials, and posture changes become support and governance signals rather than silent config drift.
Entitlement Shape
A license JWT carries the contract the runtime can enforce.
Srasta license tokens are intentionally compact. They identify the issuer and customer, define edition, expiry, seat count, and node cap, and give the runtime enough information to make deterministic decisions without reaching across the network on every request.
Issuer
Must match Srasta's expected license issuer.
Customer ID
Stable customer identifier used for license and telemetry correlation.
Expiry
Defines warning, grace, and read-only transition timing.
Edition
Community or enterprise posture for runtime and operator UX.
Seats
Maximum named users, with zero representing unlimited.
Nodes
Maximum inference nodes, with zero representing unlimited.
Trial State Machine
Expiry is handled with warnings and controlled posture changes.
No key
Community deployments can run in trial posture with a visible banner. Enterprise deployments can require a pasted license before protected use.
Valid key
Signature, issuer, expiry, edition, seats, and nodes validate successfully. Admin shows normal operating posture.
Warning window
When a license is near expiry, Admin surfaces a warning so renewal can happen before operational disruption.
Grace period
After expiry, Srasta can allow a short grace period with writes still available and warnings elevated.
Read-only
After grace, protected write operations can move to read-only posture until the operator renews or replaces the key.
Invalid signature
Malformed, untrusted, or wrongly signed tokens are treated as invalid and surfaced clearly to the operator.
Node Caps
Over-cap usage is a signal for conversion, not a punishment.
Srasta tracks the effective node cap from the license and any operator-side tightening. When observed nodes exceed the effective cap, the platform escalates messaging over time instead of immediately breaking inference. That lets active pilots keep learning while sales and support get a clear follow-up signal.
OK
Observed nodes are at or below the effective cap, or the license is unlimited.
Grace
The first over-cap days are intentionally quiet so short-lived experiments do not create noise.
Warn
Admin starts surfacing a clear message that the pilot is outgrowing its current license.
Urgent / critical
Longer over-cap operation escalates the call to action while still preserving the customer relationship.
Commercial Loop
License events connect product usage to follow-up.
Srasta's self-serve flow is designed to be measurable without manufacturing fake leads. Anonymous traffic, trial requests, license issuance, installation heartbeats, engagement state, node-count posture, CRM tasks, and drip emails help the team understand whether a trial is stuck, active, dormant, or ready for a pilot conversation.
Attribution
UTM source, medium, and campaign are carried from website entry into trial request and CRM context.
License issuance
A trial request creates or reuses a customer license row, signs a JWT, and records issuance history.
CRM handoff
Known leads enter CRM as People; anonymous website traffic is summarized separately as top-of-funnel tasks.
Telemetry roll-up
Install heartbeats enrich CRM with engagement state, last-seen time, version, OS, node count, and cap status.
Drip lifecycle
Welcome, mid-trial, and pre-expiry emails guide the user toward install help, pilot review, or community fallback.
Renewal path
Enterprise renewal extends expiry, signs a fresh JWT, and preserves issuance auditability.
Operator Actions
The lifecycle stays explicit after the first key is issued.
Create
Srasta creates a license record for a customer, edition, expiry, seats, nodes, and optional CRM identity.
Issue
Srasta signs a JWT against the license record and logs the issuance hash and timestamp.
Activate
The customer pastes or configures the JWT; Admin and gateway services read the current posture.
Renew
Srasta extends expiry and issues a replacement JWT with updated claim timing.
Revoke
Srasta marks a license revoked when a customer, pilot, or internal test should no longer issue fresh tokens.
Audit
License status and denials are visible in the same governance story as admin, inference, and tool events.
FAQ
License lifecycle questions
Does a customer install run the Srasta license server?
No. The license server is Srasta-operated infrastructure. Customer deployments receive signed license JWTs and validate them locally using Srasta public-key verification.
Can Srasta validate a license without calling home?
Yes. License JWTs are RS256-signed, and customer-side services validate signature, issuer, expiry, edition, seat limits, and node limits locally. Revocation and CRM workflows are Srasta-side operating functions.
What happens when a trial expires?
A license can warn before expiry, enter a short grace period after expiry, and eventually move the platform into read-only posture for protected write paths. Node-cap overage is treated as a conversion signal and escalated through UI messaging rather than a hard runtime block.
What is included in a self-serve trial?
The current trial shape issues an enterprise-edition JWT for 30 days with a 10-seat limit and a 1-node cap. The flow is designed to prove the platform quickly and then convert qualified pilots to enterprise licensing.
Next Step
Use the trial to prove the operating loop.
The right question is not just whether the model answers. It is whether the platform can install, validate, measure usage, protect governance posture, and convert proof into an enterprise pilot.