For organizations
Every image and chart stays free to use; funding pays for its maintenance.
Your contribution goes to the project, never to a person.
Maintainers are paid from it only for months in which they did their duties.
Every payment, policy and monthly result is public, and you get receipts.
Funding buys no private builds, no influence and no guarantee.
Why fund maintenance
An image or chart you depend on usually has no contract behind it; when its maintainers move on, fixes stop quietly. On CommonLayer each project has named maintainers, public security deadlines and a funding target that pays for that work.
What your money does
Each month the project's published policy shares the money out: maintainer pay, shared infrastructure, a flexible pool and a reserve for short gaps. A maintainer who did not do their duties is not paid; the money stays with the project.
In the documentation: Funding model
What funding does not buy
Every image and chart is free to pull and use whether or not anyone pays.
- No private builds, early access or paid-only variants.
- No influence over how a vulnerability is assessed or disclosed.
- No say in who maintains a project.
- No warranty: deadlines are published policy, not a contract.
Contributing as an organization
Create an organization, invite colleagues and contribute in its name, once or monthly, to several projects in one payment. Members, notes and billing details are never public.
Organization roles (3)
| Role | Can |
|---|---|
| Member | See the organization, its members and its contributions |
| Billing manager | Everything a member can, plus contribute, change or cancel recurring contributions, and manage the billing profile |
| Organization admin | Everything a billing manager can, plus manage members, profile, internal notes, webhooks and service accounts |
Accounting and receipts
Each confirmed contribution gets a numbered receipt; fees are shown apart from the gross amount; nothing in the ledger is edited afterwards. A contribution can be refunded within 14 days, up to what the project still holds. Whether it is tax-deductible depends on the operator and your jurisdiction; see the terms.
In the documentation: Ledger specification
Verifying what you run
Pin by digest. Every published version comes with the commands to check its signature, SBOMs and provenance yourself.
In the documentation: Verifying artifacts