Licence
This pack
Everything in this brief pack — the nine numbered documents, 09__source-manifest.csv, both sources__*.json files, the four maps in maps/ (both .mmd source and rendered .svg), screenshots/capture.js, screenshots/targets.json, this file and README.md — is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0).
Copyright (c) 2026 Dinis Cruz Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ↗
Attribution: Dinis Cruz, with AI co-authorship (Claude, Anthropic). Where a source document names model co-authors, carry those names forward.
The four maps are original works, drawn from this pack's own research. They carry no ShareAlike obligation. The technique they use is Simon Wardley's and is credited as such — crediting a technique is good practice, not a licence condition.
The site this pack commissions
The entire content of wardley-maps.sgit.ai — every page, /documents/, /llms.txt, /llms-full.txt and the admin surfaces — is to be published under CC BY 4.0, consistent with the rest of the *.sgit.ai network. Put the licence in /llms.txt, in the page footer, and at the foot of every raw markdown document:
This document is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0).
Use licence-audit.py (shipped in the graphs.sgit.ai pack) in --check mode as a CI gate so the stamp cannot drift.
⚠️ The one that matters: CC BY vs CC BY-SA
This site sits inside a CC BY-SA ecosystem. That is the single biggest licensing trap in the build, and it does not apply to any other site in the network.
ShareAlike is viral. Quoting CC BY-SA material with attribution is fine. Adapting it — rewriting, restructuring, translating, building a derivative table from it — obliges you to license the resulting page CC BY-SA 4.0, not CC BY 4.0.
The rule: CC BY-SA material appears as clearly-marked quotation and link-out, never as adaptation. Then every page stays CC BY 4.0 and the network's licence stays uniform. Where you genuinely want to adapt, do it on a page carrying its own CC BY-SA 4.0 notice and say why at the top.
Standard attribution string, used across the ecosystem:
Wardley Mapping is provided courtesy of Simon Wardley, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Watch the version split. The book and most of the ecosystem are CC BY-SA 4.0. Simon Wardley's blog blog.gardeviance.org is CC BY-SA 3.0. Different licences, different notices — do not merge them into one footer.
What this licence does not cover
| Material | Regime | What the site must do |
|---|---|---|
| Simon Wardley's book, Learn Wardley Mapping's free reference, the Mapping Canvas, wardleymaps.com, Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 4.0 | Quote and screenshot with the attribution string. Do not adapt. |
blog.gardeviance.org | CC BY-SA 3.0 ⚠️ | Same, with a separate 3.0 notice. |
| awesome-wardley-maps | CC0 1.0 | Anything, no attribution required. The best base for your own list — and it lists five dead things as live, so correct it while crediting it. |
| OWM, Mermaid, wardleyToGo, cli-owm, ArcKit | MIT | Retain the notice. Technique credit to Wardley is separate. |
| Obsidian plugin, Tranquil's Map | AGPL-3.0 ⚠️ | Network clause — matters if you ever embed one in a service. |
The 8 prior-art articles on docs.diniscruz.ai | CC0 1.0 | More permissive than CC BY, so republishing is fine — but attribute anyway and keep rel="canonical" on the original URL with the recorded first_published date. |
| InfoQ, YouTube, GCATI, Xebia, LWM's paid course, Hudson's and Bell/Thorpe's books | All rights reserved | Brief quotation and a page screenshot for identification. No re-hosting, no clipping, no reproducing their diagrams. |
Vault contents at sgit.ai/demos/vaults/ | Per-vault; read keys publishable, write keys never | Confirm the write key is escrowed before linking. Publishing a read key for a vault whose write key is lost freezes it permanently. |
| Tier-3 rows in the manifest (6 rows) | Internal | Do not publish, quote or paraphrase. Listed so you know to skip them. |
| Tier-2 rows (7 rows) | Partial | Marked EXTRACT ONLY / IDEA ONLY / CARE / ARCHIVE FIRST. Read the why_it_matters column before touching them. |
🚩 Six flagged — link only until resolved
swardley/WARDLEY-MAP-REPOSITORY— README says CC BY-SA, GitHub licence field says GPL-3.0. Do not mirror. 147 maps are worth one email to resolve.- WardleyPedia — no licence stated. Do not assume the MediaWiki default.
- Matt Edgar's critique — no statement, assume ARR. Highest-value critique, least clear rights.
- Open Security Summit session pages — no licence stated, including Dinis's own sessions.
- Miro / Figma / draw.io templates — mostly unstated, varying. Check per template.
- Discord and forum content — personal messages. Never quote a member without consent.
Third-party names
Naming a technique, framework, standard, tool or public author is fine — Simon Wardley, Ben Mosior, Chris Daniel, Matt Edgar, Danny Buerkli, Tristan Slominski and the others in 04__ are credited for public work. Recording that MapKeep shut down on 30 May 2026 and crediting Slominski for building it is a factual obituary the community needs.
Attaching maturity or capability judgements to named commercial competitors is not fine — that is why Map 8 of the eight-maps brief is marked REDACT and why the whole library/alchemist/materials/ tree is Tier-3.
This file is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0).
=== /maps/M1__tooling-ecosystem.mmd — wardley-beta source
wardley-beta title M1 - The Wardley mapping tool ecosystem, August 2026 anchor "Mapper" [0.95, 0.55] component "Draw a map" [0.86, 0.62] component "Share a map" [0.80, 0.48] component "Version a map" [0.74, 0.55] component "Assess doctrine" [0.70, 0.22] component "Agent authoring" [0.66, 0.20] component "OnlineWardleyMaps" [0.58, 0.70] component "OWM text syntax" [0.50, 0.78] component "Mermaid wardley-beta" [0.46, 0.66] component "Git" [0.38, 0.95] component "SVG rendering" [0.30, 0.82] component "Real-time collaboration" [0.62, 0.30] component "Doctrine tool" [0.56, 0.10] component "ArcKit" [0.60, 0.34] "Mapper" --> "Draw a map" "Mapper" --> "Share a map" "Mapper" --> "Version a map" "Mapper" --> "Assess doctrine" "Mapper" --> "Agent authoring" "Draw a map" --> "OnlineWardleyMaps" "OnlineWardleyMaps" --> "OWM text syntax" "Version a map" --> "Mermaid wardley-beta" "Mermaid wardley-beta" --> "OWM text syntax" "Mermaid wardley-beta" --> "Git" "Mermaid wardley-beta" --> "SVG rendering" "OnlineWardleyMaps" --> "SVG rendering" "Share a map" --> "Real-time collaboration" "Assess doctrine" --> "Doctrine tool" "Agent authoring" --> "ArcKit" "ArcKit" --> "OWM text syntax"
=== /maps/M2__the-two-absences.mmd — wardley-beta source
wardley-beta title M2 - The two absences - what the ecosystem lost in 2026 anchor "Mapping practitioner" [0.95, 0.50] component "Situational awareness" [0.88, 0.40] component "Collaborative authoring" [0.72, 0.32] component "Doctrine self-assessment" [0.70, 0.20] component "Single-player authoring" [0.68, 0.72] component "Maps in version control" [0.60, 0.64] component "Mapkeep" [0.55, 0.30] component "doctrine.wardleymaps.com" [0.52, 0.12] component "MapScript" [0.50, 0.26] "Mapping practitioner" --> "Situational awareness" "Situational awareness" --> "Collaborative authoring" "Situational awareness" --> "Doctrine self-assessment" "Situational awareness" --> "Single-player authoring" "Situational awareness" --> "Maps in version control" "Collaborative authoring" --> "Mapkeep" "Doctrine self-assessment" --> "doctrine.wardleymaps.com" "Single-player authoring" --> "MapScript"
=== /maps/M3__maps-for-agents.mmd — wardley-beta source
wardley-beta title M3 - Maps for agents - where the new user need sits anchor "Agent" [0.95, 0.30] component "Reason about strategy" [0.88, 0.22] component "Read a map" [0.80, 0.55] component "Write a map" [0.76, 0.38] component "Contest a placement" [0.72, 0.08] component "Machine-readable corpus" [0.60, 0.45] component "OWM DSL" [0.55, 0.78] component "Mermaid wardley-beta" [0.52, 0.66] component "Coordinate contract" [0.46, 0.40] component "Evidence for placement" [0.40, 0.10] component "Deterministic renderer" [0.34, 0.60] "Agent" --> "Reason about strategy" "Reason about strategy" --> "Read a map" "Reason about strategy" --> "Write a map" "Reason about strategy" --> "Contest a placement" "Read a map" --> "Machine-readable corpus" "Machine-readable corpus" --> "OWM DSL" "Write a map" --> "Mermaid wardley-beta" "Write a map" --> "Coordinate contract" "Mermaid wardley-beta" --> "Deterministic renderer" "Contest a placement" --> "Evidence for placement"
=== /maps/M4__the-site.mmd — wardley-beta source
wardley-beta title M4 - wardley-maps.sgit.ai as a value chain anchor "Reader or agent" [0.95, 0.45] component "Understand mapping" [0.88, 0.50] component "Find the good resources" [0.84, 0.35] component "Read the doctrine work" [0.78, 0.25] component "See a worked example" [0.74, 0.42] component "Resource pages" [0.62, 0.30] component "Doctrine assessment" [0.58, 0.18] component "Rendered maps" [0.54, 0.55] component "Map sources in git" [0.46, 0.70] component "llms.txt surface" [0.40, 0.48] component "Static hosting" [0.24, 0.92] "Reader or agent" --> "Understand mapping" "Reader or agent" --> "Find the good resources" "Reader or agent" --> "Read the doctrine work" "Reader or agent" --> "See a worked example" "Find the good resources" --> "Resource pages" "Read the doctrine work" --> "Doctrine assessment" "See a worked example" --> "Rendered maps" "Rendered maps" --> "Map sources in git" "Understand mapping" --> "llms.txt surface" "Resource pages" --> "llms.txt surface" "llms.txt surface" --> "Static hosting" "Map sources in git" --> "Static hosting"
=== /index.md