The Cognitive Collision Engine™ — the council pattern that powers ThinqBits — is now available for adoption by NGOs, research labs, universities, and mission-aligned teams. Free once granted. Pay only for what you'd want anyway: customization, deployment, and access to premium AI skills.
A ThinqBits project · Stewarded by the ThinqBits team
ThinqBits is a managed open-source project. The engine is the council pattern — not a single feature, but the architecture for orchestrating multiple AI perspectives into a structured, auditable cognitive collision.
After grant approval · AGPL-3.0
One-time setup + monthly hosting
For closed-source SaaS / proprietary use
The pattern is domain-agnostic. Anywhere a single LLM gives you a confident-but-flat answer, a council surfaces what was missing.
Cross-disciplinary AI scientist panels for climate, public health, biomedical research — surfacing non-obvious cross-domain insights teams would otherwise miss.
Multi-stakeholder deliberation councils for NGOs and government — economist, ethicist, legal, community advocate, frontline operator — pressure-testing decisions before they ship.
Socratic teaching councils, dissertation committees, peer-review simulators — students and researchers practicing against multiple expert lenses instead of one generic AI.
AGPL-3.0 covers the legal floor. The grant adds a simple cultural requirement: visible attribution. This is what makes the methodology yours to reference, not anonymous infrastructure.
Required in the footer of any deployment:
Powered by ThinqBits™ Cognitive Collision Engine
thinqbits.com
Required in your README / about page:
This project uses the ThinqBits Cognitive Collision Engine
(AGPL-3.0) under a grant from ThinqBits.
Source: https://github.com/thinqbits/thinqbits
"ThinqBits" and "Cognitive Collision Engine" are trademarks. The grant gives you the right to use them in attribution. Removing attribution voids the grant.
AGPL is the strongest copyleft license. We picked it on purpose — and the grant program is how we keep it from being a wall.
AGPL means anyone running a modified version as a service must publish their changes. Mission-aligned forks stay public; closed-source clones come back to the table for a commercial license.
NGOs, research labs, universities, and independent builders get the engine free under the grant. The license isn't the friction point — the grant is fast, the criteria are public, and the answer is usually yes.
Closed-source SaaS competitors pay for a commercial license. That funds engine development, the public Pack registry, and grant-tier support — so the free tier stays good.
Tell us who you are and what you'd build. Most grants are approved within 5 business days. Once approved, you get the repo, the attribution kit, and a listing in the public Grant Registry.
Can I use this commercially without paying?
Yes — if your derivative is also AGPL-3.0 and source-available. If you want to build a closed-source SaaS or sell proprietary features on top of the engine, you'll need a commercial license.
What's the difference between a Thinqer Pack and the engine?
The engine is the orchestration architecture. Thinqer Packs are domain-specific cognitive frameworks — JSON definitions, tuned prompts, and (for Agent Packs) external endpoints. Framework-tier Packs are free; Enhanced and Agent Packs are sold via the marketplace with a 70/30 (or 80/20) revenue split with developers.
Do I have to use the "ThinqBits" name?
No — your deployment can have any name (e.g. a domain-specific council under your own brand). The attribution requirement is just a "Powered by ThinqBits" line in the footer and README. You own your brand; the architecture credit goes to the engine.
What if my grant is denied?
Rare, but it happens for use cases that conflict with the project's mission (e.g. surveillance, manipulation tooling). You'll get a written explanation and can resubmit with a revised scope, or take the commercial license route.
Can I still get help if I'm on the free tier?
Community support via GitHub issues, yes. Direct architect support, custom Pack authoring, and managed hosting are paid services — that's how the free tier stays funded.
Where's the source repo?
Released to grant recipients today; public read-only mirror coming after the first wave of grants is in place. The grant gates the supported version with the attribution kit; the engine itself will eventually be fully public.