Licenses and policies

Issue licenses, set their terms with policies, and suspend, renew, or revoke them as your customers' situations change.

License types

Type	Expires	Use it for
Perpetual	Never	One-time purchases.
Timed	Yes	Annual or fixed-term licenses.
Trial	Yes	Free evaluations.
Subscription	Yes	Recurring plans. Renew the license each time a payment succeeds.

Key format

Keys look like ATLAS-7K2M-9QXD-…. Set your own prefix (up to 12 letters or numbers) on each product, or remove it entirely. The prefix is cosmetic: changing it never breaks keys you've already issued, and customers can type a key with or without it.

Policies

A policy holds the terms you sell over and over:

Setting	What it does
License type and duration	How long a new license lasts, in days.
Device limit	How many devices can be active at once (1–1,000).
Grace period	Days a license keeps working after it expires, so a late renewal doesn't lock anyone out.
Offline access	Whether devices can work offline, and for how long.
Default entitlements	The features and limits new licenses start with.

Terms are copied onto each license when it's issued. Editing a policy later only affects new licenses, so existing customers keep exactly what they bought. Archive a policy to stop offering it.

Entitlements

Entitlements are the features and limits your app reads after a successful check. Values can be true/false, numbers, or text.

json

{ "plan": "pro", "seats": 5, "export.pdf": true, "support": "priority" }

Keys use lowercase letters, numbers, ., _, and -, with up to 100 per license. Change them at any time (for example on an upgrade) and the app sees the new values on its next check.

Customers

Attach a customer when you issue a license: pick an existing one, or pass an email and your own ID (for example your billing system's customer ID). Issuing another license with the same ID reuses that customer. The Customers page shows each customer's licenses in one place, which makes support requests quick.

Managing a license

Action	Effect	Undo
Suspend	Blocks the license temporarily, for example during a payment dispute.	Reinstate
Renew	Sets a new expiry date. Use it for every subscription payment.	—
Edit	Changes entitlements, metadata, or the device limit.	Edit again
Revoke	Blocks the license permanently. You'll pick a reason, such as a refund or chargeback.	Not possible

Changes reach your app on its next online check. Every change is recorded in the license's history and in your organization's audit log.

Statuses

Status	Meaning
Active	Usable, as long as it has started and hasn't passed its expiry plus grace period.
Suspended	Temporarily blocked.
Revoked	Permanently blocked.
Expired	Past its expiry date and grace period. Renew it to restore access.
Superseded	Replaced by a newer license.

Issuing from your server

To issue licenses from your own checkout, call the API with a secret key. Pass an idempotency key such as your order ID, so a retried request never creates a second license.

import { AtlasClient } from "@atlas/sdk";

const atlas = new AtlasClient({ apiKey: process.env.ATLAS_SECRET_KEY! });

const issued = await atlas.licenses.create(
  {
    product_id: "prod_...",
    policy_id: "pol_...",
    customer: { external_id: order.customerId, email: order.email },
  },
  { idempotencyKey: `order-${order.id}` },
);

sendEmail(order.email, issued.key); // the full key is only returned here