vercel / vercel/ai-elements

Persona: clarify licensing of the Rive animation assets (and possibility of editable sources)

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TypeScript
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Description

The Persona component hotlinks six compiled Rive files from Vercel Blob storage (packages/elements/src/persona.tsx): command-2.0.riv, glint-2.0.riv, halo-2.0.riv, mana-2.0.riv, obsidian-2.0.riv, and orb-1.2.riv (the opal variant).

The repo is Apache-2.0, but these binaries are not in the repo, the packages, or the shadcn registry payload — they are fetched at runtime — so no license text appears to cover the animation assets themselves.

From public sources, the animations originate from Surge Studio's "Elements" product line, which its creator announced was acquired by Vercel in January 2026 (announcement, elements.surge.studio). The pre-acquisition license at https://elements.surge.studio/legal/license is still the only license text publicly associated with these files, and it states copyright is owned by Surge Studio and prohibits redistribution — presumably superseded by the acquisition, but nothing published says so.

Two questions:

  1. What license applies to the .riv assets now? In particular: may users self-host the files (useful for offline, air-gapped, or e2e-tested apps rather than depending on the blob store), and may they modify them?
  2. Is there a path to the editable Rive sources? The original Gumroad packages included "a .rev source file for customisation in Rive", so editable sources exist. Publishing them (or offering a way to request them, or even just documenting the state-machine contract) would let users build compatible custom personas — e.g. adding a new state beyond listening/thinking/speaking/asleep.

Happy to help document the outcome (e.g. an asset-license note in the README or the persona docs).

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with packages/elements/src/persona.tsx and review the linked Surge Studio license, acquisition announcement, and Elements site. Confirm the current terms for self-hosting, modification, and editable Rive sources, then document the outcome in the README or persona documentation, including the state-machine contract if available.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
typescript
Domain
documentation
Issue type
Documentation
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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