Whether you're exploring ContextForge AI Gateway for a side project or deploying it in production, we're here to help. This guide covers all the ways to get support, from community resources to enterprise options.

Open Source First

ContextForge AI Gateway is open source under the Apache 2.0 license, and we're committed to keeping it that way. You can use it freely for personal projects, startups, enterprises, or anything in between. There are no artificial restrictions, no feature paywalls, and no surprises.

We believe in building in the open. Every feature, every fix, every improvement is developed upstream and goes into the same codebase that everyone uses.

Our open source philosophy:

• The open source project is fully functional - not a limited "community edition"
• Any differentiated commercial offerings would be provided as extensions or product inclusions, not as limitations of the open source product
• Core features are not held back or paywalled
• Community and commercial users share the same codebase
• No telemetry - currently there is no phone-home or data collection; designed to run fully air-gapped. If we ever add analytics, it would be opt-in, transparent, and used solely for product improvement

Who's behind this?

ContextForge AI Gateway is developed by dedicated teams at IBM across Technology, Consulting, and Security Research, alongside 100+ open source contributors including students, researchers, and developers from around the world. It powers several IBM Technology products and IBM Consulting Advantage, a platform serving 160,000+ users. The project is founded and led by Mihai Criveti, Distinguished Engineer for Agentic AI at IBM & CTO ContextForge. This means active development, long-term investment, and enterprise-grade engineering - all in the open.

Community Support

GitHub Issues

For bugs, feature requests, and technical questions:

Before filing an issue:

1. Read [README-FIRST] #2502 - Understand our backlog, labels, and how we prioritize
2. Search existing issues to avoid duplicates
3. Check the FAQ for common questions
4. Include version info from the /version endpoint

GitHub Discussions

For questions, ideas, and community conversations:

• GitHub Discussions

Use Discussions for:

• General questions about ContextForge AI Gateway
• Architecture and design discussions
• Sharing your use cases and integrations
• Asking "how do I..." questions

Discord

Join our community for real-time help and conversation:

• ContextForge Discord

Great for:

• Quick questions
• Connecting with other users
• Sharing what you're building
• Getting help with troubleshooting

Working with the Backlog

We use MoSCoW prioritization (MUST/SHOULD/COULD/WOULD) and milestone-based planning. Here's how issues flow:

New Issue → Triage → Prioritized → Milestone → Development → Release

Issue Priority Order:

We prioritize issues in this order:

1. Security - Vulnerabilities and security fixes are our top priority
2. Bugs - Broken functionality that affects users
3. Features - New capabilities and enhancements

How to help your issue get attention:

1. Use the issue templates (they exist for a reason)
2. Provide clear reproduction steps for bugs
3. Include environment info and logs
4. Be specific about expected vs actual behavior
5. Respond promptly if we ask for more info

Labels to watch:

• good first issue - Great for new contributors
• help wanted - We'd love community help here
• MUST - Critical items for the next release

See [README-FIRST] #2502 for the complete backlog guide.

Support Policy

Supported Versions

We support only the latest release. There are no backported security patches or long-term support (LTS) branches.

Why? As an actively developed project, we invest our energy in moving forward. Upgrading to the latest version gives you all security fixes, bug fixes, and new features.

Runtime Requirements

What We Support

• Installation and configuration issues
• Bugs in the gateway, Admin UI, and CLI tools
• MCP protocol compliance questions
• Integration with documented features

What We Don't Support

• End-of-life Python versions (< 3.11)
• Older releases (upgrade to latest first)
• Custom forks or modifications
• Third-party MCP servers (contact their maintainers)
• General Python/Docker/Kubernetes questions (use Stack Overflow)

Active Patching & Dependency Updates

We actively maintain the latest release with up-to-date dependencies and container images:

Container Images:

• Base image: Red Hat UBI 10.1 Minimal (registry.access.redhat.com/ubi10-minimal)
• Regularly updated to include latest security patches
• Multi-architecture support (amd64, arm64, s390x, ppc64le)

Dependencies:

• Python dependencies updated regularly via automated tooling
• We aim to address security vulnerabilities quickly in the latest release
• All updates go through our CI/CD pipeline with comprehensive testing

Need to move faster?

If you need updates before the next release, you can update dependencies yourself:

# Update Python dependencies in pyproject.toml
make deps-update

# Rebuild container with your updates
make docker-prod

The dependency updater (.github/tools/update_dependencies.py) fetches latest versions from PyPI and updates constraints in pyproject.toml. After updating, verify the build succeeds and run tests before deploying. Note that container images already update system packages during build; you can manually adjust the base image tag in Containerfile.lite if needed.

Self-Help Resources

Before reaching out, check these resources:

Contributing

Found a bug and want to fix it yourself? We love contributions!

All contributions require:

• Signed commits (DCO: git commit -s)
• Passing tests and linting
• Code review approval

Enterprise & Commercial Support

For organizations needing dedicated support, IBM offers commercial options.

IBM Elite Support

Professional technical support for ContextForge AI Gateway v1.0.0-GA and later. For details, see IBM Elite Support for ContextForge AI Gateway.

Consulting Services

For custom integrations, architecture reviews, or hands-on deployment assistance, contact your IBM representative.

ContextForge in IBM Products

ContextForge AI Gateway is included in several IBM products. If you're using ContextForge through an IBM product, support is provided through that product's terms and channels.

Note: Commercial support is entirely optional. The open source project is fully functional without it. Many organizations run ContextForge AI Gateway in production using community support alone.

Security Issues

For security vulnerabilities, do not open a public issue. Instead:

1. Review SECURITY.md
2. Use GitHub's private vulnerability reporting
3. Allow time for a fix before public disclosure

We take security seriously and appreciate responsible disclosure.

Response Time Expectations

Community Support

Community support is provided by maintainers and community members on a best-effort basis:

Response times vary based on maintainer availability and issue complexity. We do our best, but cannot guarantee specific response times for community support.

Commercial Support

IBM Elite Support provides guaranteed SLAs. Contact IBM for specific terms.

Our Commitment

We're committed to:

• Keeping ContextForge AI Gateway open source under Apache 2.0
• Not limiting the open source product to sell commercial features
• Providing any commercial offerings as extensions, not restrictions
• Treating community and commercial users equally in the codebase
• Being transparent about our roadmap and priorities
• Listening to community feedback
• Maintaining high quality and security standards

Thank you for being part of the ContextForge community!

Last updated: January 2025 | Version: 1.0.0-RC1