Thanks for the provenance note — one small MIT notice gap in the shipped build

[hifihedgehog]

Hi! 👋 HIDMaestro author here (Hifihedgehog).

First off, thank you for the writeup in crates/hidmaestro/driver/README.md. Naming the source repo, the exact release (v1.3.17), the MIT license, and being upfront that the binaries were extracted from the DriverStore copy is genuinely more provenance care than most projects bother with, and I appreciate it. The node-graph approach in FlexInput is really cool, too.

One small licensing gap, and it's an easy fix. The MIT license asks that the copyright line and permission notice travel with every copy of the software, and flexinput.exe embeds the driver package via include_bytes! (HIDMaestro.dll, HMXInput.dll, both INFs, both catalogs), so each release is a copy. Right now the notice text itself isn't anywhere — not in the repo, and the release zip is just the single exe with no license files.

Concretely, either of these closes it:

• Drop HIDMaestro's LICENSE into crates/hidmaestro/driver/ next to the binaries (the same treatment vendor/egui-snarl/ already gets), and
• Include a THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.txt (or equivalent) beside flexinput.exe in the release zip so it ships with the built artifact.

A line in the main README's Credits section would be a nice touch as well, though that one's courtesy rather than license.

Totally happy to help on the technical side too, whenever useful. You're pinned to v1.3.17 and current is v1.6.x, and there's been a fair amount since then (USB/IP backend, more profiles, FFB fixes). If anything in the shared-memory protocol or the XUSB companion path gives you trouble as you move forward, open a thread on the HIDMaestro repo (https://github.com/hifihedgehog/HIDMaestro) or ping me and I'll help however I can.

Thanks again for building on it, and for the honest provenance note. 🙏

[x-iso]

Readme is due for another update and specifically more credits to add indeed. The app itself has credits with link to HIDMaestro repo:

would this be enough to not have to include extra files along exe? and I'll drop license into crates/hidmaestro/driver/ as you suggested.

as for driver version I'm pinned to, so far it's been working well! if I do find any issues, I'll see if newer versions already fix them. also, not sure USB/IP would give me anything extra, as I've implemented network connection of the data flow itself between app instances, and I'm planning to go a bit further with that network stack.

[hifihedgehog]

@x-iso Answering your question, and thank you for the in-app credits screen. That is a good-faith way to do it.

Short answer: the in-app screen can absolutely be the place the notice lives, but it needs to carry the actual license text, not only the project name and a link. MIT asks for two specific things to travel with every copy: the copyright line ("Copyright (c) 2026 HIDMaestro Contributors") and the permission-and-warranty paragraphs. A name plus a repo link is a credit, which is genuinely appreciated, but it is not the notice.

So either of these fully satisfies it, and you do not need both:

1. Expand that credits screen into a third-party licenses view that shows the full MIT text for HIDMaestro. Plenty of shipped apps do exactly this and never put a file beside the exe.
2. Keep the screen as-is and ship the LICENSE file alongside, as you were already planning with crates/hidmaestro/driver/.

Option 1 is probably less friction for you given you ship a single exe. Dropping the license into crates/hidmaestro/driver/ is still worth doing regardless, since it documents provenance for anyone reading the repo.

On the pinned version, staying on v1.3.17 is completely fine if it is working. Nothing about the notice question depends on upgrading. And that makes sense on USB/IP, your own network stack covers that ground already.

No rush on any of this. Thanks again for the careful provenance note in the driver README.

[hifihedgehog]

@x-iso A friendly follow-up on the HIDMaestro notice. Thanks again for the in-app credit.

When you have a chance, please add the copyright and full MIT text from HIDMaestro's LICENSE beside the vendored driver files and include the notice in the shipped app. Showing it in a licenses view or shipping it alongside the executable both work.

Feel free to ask here if you need help with packaging or HIDMaestro integration.

[x-iso]

ok, on next push there will be license next to driver, plus I'll be adding 'third-party licenses' button in credits section of the app, which will then open list of third-party licenses. as I want to keep app a portable exe file without anything extra beside it.