Ecosystem leverage map

What the Reforger community and free-asset sites can give Life Framework, and under which terms. Surveyed 2026-11-08. Licenses were read from each repo's LICENSE file through raw.githubusercontent.com, not from badges or the GitHub license field. Workshop facts were read from the mod pages on reforger.armaplatform.com/workshop. Nothing was imported in this change.

Related surveys: EveronLife forks, Overthrow survey, what the scopes reuse.

What we can and cannot copy

Our code is MIT. A file we copy into the repo must carry a license that lets us redistribute it under MIT terms, so only permissive licenses qualify.

Workshop upload terms. Section 3 of the Workshop Terms of Use says uploaded content must be licensed to users under APL, APL-SA, APL-ND, ADPL-SA, or a custom license that explicitly forbids commercial use. MIT is not on that list. Decided 2026-11-08 (docs/decisions.md, "The Workshop build is APL"): the Workshop build is published under APL and the GitHub source stays MIT, starting with the playtest release (M1-24, #109).

A GitHub licence governs the code in that repo. Many mods carry an APL-family licence on the Workshop (Bohemia requires one) and a permissive licence on GitHub. An author may license the same work differently in different places. When the copyright holder publishes the code on GitHub under MIT, BSD, Apache-2.0, CC0, or CC-BY, that licence governs our use of the code in the repo, whatever the Workshop page says. Two conditions: the repo is published by the copyright holder (an official or author account, not a third-party re-upload), and the grant covers only what is in the repo (an asset shipped only on the Workshop stays under the Workshop licence). Every row below was checked against this rule on 2026-11-08; no project in the tables was marked not-copyable because of its Workshop licence alone. The Workshop-only candidates in section 2 have no source repo from their authors.

Base game first. Before pulling from anywhere, check the vanilla game: Configs/Commanding/Gestures/Gesture_*.conf (follow, halt, point, salute, get in), EItemGesture, the unconscious state and cameras, and the vanilla furniture, bench, and chair props. These cost nothing and match the game's look. tools\cli call asset_search does not index .anm files; browse animations in Workbench.

1. GitHub repos

Reforger and Enfusion projects

Tooling

2. Workshop dependencies

A few Workshop dependencies are acceptable. Criteria, all required:

1. Maintained: updated for the current game version, more than one release a year.
2. Widely used: downloads in the hundreds of thousands or a known team.
3. Terms allow it: the license permits use as a dependency; we never edit or ship its files, and we only override its prefabs if the license allows derivatives.
4. It carries something we cannot reasonably build ourselves, mostly animations and art.
5. The framework core works without it. Only the flagship content pack (or an optional LifeFramework_<Dep> bridge addon) depends on it; the core detects the missing dependency and falls back with an EL_Debug.Warn.

Declaring a dependency. Add the Workshop GUID to Dependencies in addons/LifeFramework/LifeFramework.gproj (today only 58D0FB3206B6F859, the base game). For the optional route, a separate bridge addon (addons/LifeFramework_ACE/LifeFramework_ACE.gproj) depends on both LifeFramework and the Workshop mod, so the core gproj never changes. Dependencies of a dependency must also be resolvable. A hosted server lists every mod in config.json game.mods[] by modId and downloads them.

Effect on our test harness. tools\cli test and cli build start the server with -noBackend and -addonsDir set to the repo addons folder plus a junction to the base game's core/data only (serverArgs in tools/cli.mjs). With -noBackend nothing downloads, so a dependency must already be on disk:

1. Subscribe once in the Workbench or game launcher; the packed addon lands in the user's Reforger addons folder (Documents\My Games\ArmaReforger\addons for the game, ...\ArmaReforgerWorkbench\addons for Workbench).
2. Add a third -addonsDir entry for that folder (an env var such as LF_WORKSHOP_ADDONS, read in serverArgs and cmdBuild), and add the bridge addon to -addons.
3. The core suite keeps running with no dependency present. Bridge tests are tagged and skipped with a clear message when the folder or addon is missing, so a fresh worktree and CI (validate only) stay green.

No harness change is made until a dependency is actually adopted.

3. Asset sources

Every source below was checked against its own license page on 2026-11-08, except rows marked snippet (the page refused automated fetches; terms come from search excerpts of the official page) and unverified.

3D models and PBR textures

Decals, signage, icons

Fonts (OFL is fine)

OFL allows bundling in a game. Ship the license text and copyright line, and because conversion to the engine font format is a modification, give the converted font a new name that avoids any Reserved Font Name (for example LF_Typewriter). Licenses read from each font's METADATA.pb in google/fonts.

Sounds and music

Animations

Every external animation must be retargeted to the Reforger character skeleton in Blender before export, so even a free clip costs real work.

Enfusion import pipeline

The Bohemia wiki pages named here refused automated fetches; confirm details with tools\cli call wiki_read before a first import.

4. Top 10 pulls

Ranked by value over effort, weighted toward what raises felt quality (animation and sound).

Next after these: game-icons.net icons (CC BY 3.0, copy with credit) for the interaction menu and Read cards, Retro Police Cars for M2 police vehicles (ask, APL-SA dependency), Marx's stash grid and test runner as design reading for #100 and the harness, and Community-Pause-Menu (MIT) for the playtest guide link in #109.

5. Import policy

Code

1. Copy only MIT, BSD, ISC, Apache-2.0, BSL-1.0, Unlicense, or CC0 code. Read the LICENSE file on the commit you copy from; a badge or a README line does not count (Overthrow's badge says MIT, its file says APL-SA). The licence that counts is the one on the copy we take. A mod whose Workshop page says APL but whose author publishes the code on GitHub under MIT, BSD, Apache-2.0, CC0, or CC-BY is copyable from that repo, provided the copyright holder published it (not a third-party re-upload). Assets that exist only in the Workshop build stay under the Workshop licence.
2. Keep the original copyright and license text at the top of every copied file, followed by // Ported from <repo> (<license>), author <name>. as in Feature/Police/LF_JailEscort.c. Apache-2.0 also needs its NOTICE kept.
3. Rename to LF_ per AGENTS.md; the header keeps the original names.
4. Add a line to THIRD_PARTY.md at the repo root (create it with the first import): file paths, source URL and commit, author, license. Add the project to README Credits.
5. Never copy GPL, AGPL, APL, APL-SA, APL-ND, CC-BY-SA, NC, ND, or unlicensed code, not even "rewritten line by line". Read it for design, then write our own from the behaviour. One exception: Overthrow, whose owner gave us permission to use and relicense its code under MIT with credit. A file copied or derived from it starts with // Derived from Overthrow (https://github.com/ArmaOverthrow/Overthrow.Arma4), used with the author's permission, relicensed MIT. in place of the header in rule 2. README Credits and THIRD_PARTY.md already carry the project entry; add the file paths to THIRD_PARTY.md.
6. To ask an author, open an issue or Discord message naming the exact files and the license we need (MIT or CC-BY), and keep their written answer linked in THIRD_PARTY.md.

Assets

1. Allowed: CC0, public domain, CC-BY, OFL (fonts), MIT/Apache asset repos. Exclude NC, ND, SA, "standard" marketplace licenses, and anything without a readable license.
2. Keep the original download under assets-source/<type>/ and record one line per asset in assets-source/LICENSES.md: asset, source URL, author, license, our resource path. CC-BY assets also go in README Credits (and a credits screen when we have one).
3. A converted font gets a new name and ships OFL.txt.

Workshop dependencies

1. Meet all five criteria in section 2; record the decision in docs/decisions.md.
2. Prefer an optional bridge addon over adding the GUID to the core LifeFramework.gproj.
3. Never edit, repack, or override the files of an ND or RHS-style mod.
4. The core test suite must pass without the dependency present.