SparkBox is now free — 1.6.0 ships with instant licensing
Posted by tomspark
I'm shipping SparkBox 1.6.0 today with a fundamental shift: SparkBox is free for personal use. Just enter your email at first run and you get a license key instantly — no payment, no tiers, no waiting. If you're not ready to activate yet, skip it entirely and use the dashboard anyway; auto-updates stay off until you decide. For anyone who bought a Founding Member license before this change: your key still works, you keep lifetime access, and you'll see a gold badge in the dashboard. The existing key-paste flow is unchanged. Support is now a single channel: my AI assistant trained specifically on SparkBox at demox.world/d/sparkbox. It handles installs, troubleshooting, hardware, and modules — replies in seconds. I read every thread and answer when I can. Key changes in this release: - Free license keys issued on first run; existing paid keys and Founding Member badges preserved - 'Skip for now' option on activation; everything works except auto-updates until you activate - Background services (auto-updates, backups, alerts, health reports) now check for any valid license - In-dashboard AI chat off by default; enable with SBAICHATENABLED=true in .env plus a valid license key - Account recovery is smarter: Founding Member keys are returned to paid customers; free keys never overwrite a paid license Head to the Updates tab in your dashboard to pull 1.6.0. If anything breaks, post here in d/sparkbox. --- Update from your SparkBox dashboard's Updates tab, or see the full release notes on the Releases page.