The Support Window

The support window lets you sell a perpetual license (never expires) while charging separately for updates and support — the JetBrains model. This page covers the concept, enforcement, notifications, and renewal.

The idea

Two independent dates live on a license:

• valid_until — when the license itself stops working. For perpetual licenses this is empty (never).
• support_until — when the paid support/updates window ends. Independent of valid_until.

The license keeps verifying and running past support_until. What lapses is access to new releases — a customer keeps every version published while their support was active (perpetual fallback), and renews to get newer ones.

Setting the window

Where	How
Per-plan default	support_days on the plan. New licenses get support_until = now + support_days. 0 = unlimited support.
At issuance	Pass support_until (RFC 3339) when creating a license, overriding the plan default.
Per-license, later	POST /admin/licenses/{id}/support-until with { "support_until": "2027-01-01T00:00:00Z" }. An empty value clears it (unlimited).

Setting support_until never changes the license status — support lapse is deliberately not a lifecycle event. Reinstating an expired license stays a separate, explicit action.

Enforcement: perpetual fallback on downloads

The support window is enforced at download time (license-gated downloads), not at verify time:

• A customer can always re-download any release published before their support_until — forever.
• Requesting the latest release resolves to the newest version their support window covers.
• Pinning a version newer than the window returns 403 SUPPORT_EXPIRED.
• A license with no support_until (nil) has unlimited support.

verify keeps succeeding regardless, so the installed app never stops working — only its updater is gated.

What clients see

support_until is surfaced so your client can show renewal UX:

• In the verify/activate response as support_until.
• In the signed offline token as sup (unix seconds; 0/absent = unlimited). Your app can read it offline and show "support expires in N days."

Notifications

The hourly lifecycle checker sends support-window emails, deduped per support_until epoch (so a renewal re-arms a fresh reminder cycle):

• 30 days and 7 days before support_until — a "support ending soon" reminder.
• After lapse (scanned up to 7 days back so an outage can't swallow it) — a "support has ended" notice, plus a license.support_ended webhook.

The wording is deliberately soft — the software keeps working; only updates stop — because this is renewal-sales mail, not an outage warning. All templates are customizable in the dashboard's email editor.

Renewal (self-serve, via Stripe)

Customers renew their own support window through Stripe:

1. Set a one-time Stripe Price on the plan's support_renewal_price_id.
2. The client calls POST /license/support/checkout with { license_key } and receives a { checkout_url }.
3. On payment, the Stripe webhook extends support_until — anchored at max(now, current support_until) so early renewers stack their remaining time, by the plan's support_days (default 365).
4. A license.support_renewed webhook fires and a confirmation email is sent.

See Stripe Integration → Support renewal for the full setup.

Summary

	Perpetual	Perpetual + paid support
License expires	Never	Never
Gets all future updates	✅ forever	✅ while support active
Recurring revenue	❌	✅ (support renewals)
Enforcement point	—	Download / update feed