Question 1

Does Stowage store my files?

Accepted Answer

No. It proxies. Objects stay on whichever backend you point it at, and the SQLite file holds users, sessions, audit rows, and share metadata. Payloads never touch it.

Question 2

Is this a MinIO Console replacement?

Accepted Answer

Yes: browsing, user management, bucket settings, and the admin screens the community console had before February 2025. Stowage is not a storage server, though. Keep running MinIO, or migrate to Garage or SeaweedFS, and point Stowage at it.

Question 3

Why AGPL and not MIT?

Accepted Answer

Because permissive licensing is how consoles disappear. Under the AGPL, anyone who modifies Stowage and runs it as a service must publish their changes. Self-hosting it, or using it inside your company, asks nothing of you in practice.

Question 4

Will features move behind a paywall?

Accepted Answer

No. There is one build, and every feature in the repo ships in it. That is structural rather than a promise of good behaviour: the license and the DCO contributor model make a rug-pull unattractive to attempt. What happened to MinIO Console in May 2025 is the reason this project exists.

Question 5

Can I run it in production?

Accepted Answer

Yes, with the documented setup: a TLS-terminating reverse proxy in front and STOWAGE_SECRET_KEY set. v1.0 shipped all eight planned phases. Know its shape first, though. This is single-replica SQLite, sized for one team per deployment; if you need HA today, Stowage is not your tool.

Questions, answered plainly.