Software and middleware

Foxglove

Name: Foxglove
Brand: Foxglove Technologies Inc.

United States

Foxglove is the reference tool for inspecting, debugging and replaying robot data. It matters here as a cautionary tale as much as a tool: it was open source under MPL-2.0 and went closed-source on 11 March 2024. Its file format MCAP stayed open, and became the default rosbag2 format in ROS 2.

Updated 2026-10-11 · Last verified 2026-10-06

OrganizationFoxglove Technologies Inc.

CategoryObservability

LicenseFoxglove a annoncé la fin de l'édition open source le 10 mars 2024 ; le code 1.x reste disponible mais le développement futur est fermé / propriétaire.

Open sourceno

ROSyes

First release2021

GovernanceEntreprise unique (société du Delaware, siège à San Francisco) ; aucun comité externe.

Current version2.53.1

Used byWayve (conduite autonome)declaredBreaker Industries (orchestration multi-robots air, terre et mer)declared

Trajectory

The dated, sourced shifts in this project's life: licence, governance, archival, a component opening up. What the brick did, not what it announces.

11 March 2024 Licence Closing

Foxglove 2.0 is announced: the application becomes proprietary and its source is no longer published. The MCAP file format stays open under MIT.

Source: Foxglove Technologies Inc. (official blog)

Sources: Foxglove Technologies Inc. (official blog) (2024-03-11)Foxglove (announcement relayed on Open Robotics Discourse) (2024-03-11)Foxglove Technologies Inc. (official blog) (2026-05-25)Foxglove Technologies Inc. (official legal document) (2026-08-27)Foxglove (official blog) (2021-01-01)Foxglove Technologies Inc. (official documentation) (2026-08-18)Foxglove Technologies Inc. (official documentation) (2026-08-27)Foxglove Technologies Inc. (official site) (2026-08-27)Foxglove Technologies Inc. (official site) (2026-08-27)

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Trajectory

Bringing a physical AI solution into European industry?