id: K7
number: 7
title: Right to Fork
layer: kernel
notes: >-
  Exit is the ultimate check. The fork tooling implements this article;
  fork.yaml is the lineage record this article requires.
clauses:
  - id: K7.1
    title: Unconditional right
    text: >-
      Any citizen or group may copy the constitution, its tooling, and its
      tests, and operate under them independently, at any time, for any
      reason, without permission. No amendment may abridge this right.
      This clause is entrenched by invariant INV-3.
  - id: K7.2
    title: Parameterization versus divergence
    text: >-
      A fork that changes only forkable parameters within their declared
      bounds is a parameterization and remains upstream-compatible. A fork
      that changes any other normative content is a divergence. Both are
      legitimate; the lineage record must state which the fork is.
  - id: K7.3
    title: Lineage
    text: >-
      A fork records its upstream source, the upstream version and
      normative hash it forked from, its parameter overrides, and the date
      of the fork, in a machine-readable lineage record at the root of its
      repository. A fork may track upstream releases and adopt them by its
      own ratification process.
  - id: K7.4
    title: No obligations upstream
    text: >-
      A fork owes the upstream nothing: no fees, no reporting, no
      reciprocity. The upstream owes the fork nothing except the
      continued public availability of the releases it has already
      published.
  - id: K7.5
    title: Exit with your stake
    text: >-
      Departing citizens and forking groups retain whatever personal stake
      the applicable userland modules define for exit. A userland module
      that defines a common pool must define an exit rule; a module
      without one is invalid.