@v0idd0/licenseme

v2.0.1

Published

2 days ago

licenseme — LICENSE file generator + detector. 18 licenses (MIT, Apache-2.0, GPL-3, AGPL, MPL-2, LGPL-3, BSD 0/2/3, CC0, CC-BY, Unlicense, WTFPL, BSL, Zlib). SPDX-aware, detect existing, bump year, source-file headers. Free forever from vøiddo.

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license licenses generator detect spdx mit apache gpl bsd agpl mpl cc0 creative-commons cli voiddo

licenseme

LICENSE file generator + detector. Pick one of 18 open-source licenses, fill in your name and year, write ./LICENSE — done. Or point it at an existing LICENSE and let it tell you which license you're actually shipping under.

Free forever gift from vøiddo.

$ licenseme mit -n "Jane Doe"
  ✓ Wrote LICENSE (MIT) → /repo/LICENSE

$ licenseme --detect ./LICENSE
  License:     Apache License 2.0
  SPDX:        Apache-2.0
  Confidence:  98%  (fingerprint)

Why licenseme

npm init asks you to pick a license by name and dumps "MIT" into package.json without writing the actual LICENSE file. GitHub's "Add a license" button works but needs a browser. choosealicense.com is great at education but not at shelling.

licenseme is a single binary that:

writes the full SPDX text of 18 open-source licenses,
emits source-file copyright headers (JS / Python / HTML / plain) with SPDX tags,
detects what license an existing LICENSE file is, via SPDX tag or token-fingerprint,
bumps the copyright year in an existing LICENSE (2023 → 2023-2026),
prints SPDX identifiers for your package.json / pyproject.toml / Cargo.toml.

Install

npm install -g @v0idd0/licenseme

Or one-shot with npx:

npx -y @v0idd0/licenseme mit -n "Jane Doe"

Quickstart

# Write ./LICENSE
licenseme mit -n "Jane Doe"
licenseme apache-2.0 -n "Acme, Inc." -y 2026

# Copyleft
licenseme gpl-3.0 -n "Linus" --stdout
licenseme agpl -n "SaaS Ltd" -o ./licenses/AGPL.txt

# Print to stdout (no file write)
licenseme isc -n "Jane" --stdout

# Source-file header with SPDX tag
licenseme mit -n "Jane" --header                             # jsblock (default)
licenseme mit -n "Jane" --header --style hash                # python / shell
licenseme mit -n "Jane" --header --style html                # html / markdown

# Detect an existing LICENSE
licenseme --detect                                           # defaults to ./LICENSE
licenseme --detect ./vendor/some-lib/LICENSE

# Update copyright year in place
licenseme --update                    # bumps to current year
licenseme --update -y 2027

# List every bundled license
licenseme --list
licenseme --list --json | jq '.[] | select(.permissive == false)'

# Get just the SPDX identifier
licenseme mit --spdx          # prints "MIT"
licenseme agpl --spdx         # prints "AGPL-3.0-only"

Licenses bundled (18)

Permissive

| Key | SPDX | Name | |-----|------|------| | mit | MIT | MIT License | | apache | Apache-2.0 | Apache License 2.0 (full text, all 9 sections) | | isc | ISC | ISC License | | bsd3 | BSD-3-Clause | BSD 3-Clause ("New BSD") | | bsd2 | BSD-2-Clause | BSD 2-Clause ("Simplified BSD") | | bsd0 | 0BSD | BSD Zero Clause (no-attribution BSD) | | unlicense | Unlicense | The Unlicense (public domain) | | wtfpl | WTFPL | Do What The F*** You Want | | zlib | Zlib | zlib License | | bsl | BSL-1.0 | Boost Software License 1.0 | | cc0 | CC0-1.0 | Creative Commons Zero (public domain) | | ccby4 | CC-BY-4.0 | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 |

Copyleft / weak copyleft

| Key | SPDX | Name | |-----|------|------| | ccbysa4 | CC-BY-SA-4.0 | Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 | | mpl2 | MPL-2.0 | Mozilla Public License 2.0 | | gpl2 | GPL-2.0-only | GNU General Public License v2 | | gpl3 | GPL-3.0-only | GNU General Public License v3 | | lgpl3 | LGPL-3.0-only | GNU Lesser General Public License v3 | | agpl3 | AGPL-3.0-only | GNU Affero General Public License v3 |

Aliases

Typed what you remember, not what the SPDX id is? It's fine: apache-2.0 → apache, gpl-3.0 → gpl3, cc-by → ccby4, boost → bsl, public-domain → unlicense, 0bsd → bsd0, mpl-2.0 → mpl2.

Options

| Option | Description | |--------|-------------| | -n, --name <name> | Author / copyright holder | | -y, --year <year> | Copyright year (default: current year) | | -o, --output <path> | Write to this path (default: ./LICENSE) | | --stdout | Print to stdout instead of writing a file | | --header | Emit a source-file copyright header with SPDX tag | | --style <style> | Header comment style: jsblock, jsline, hash, html | | --file <name> | Inline filename into the header (optional) | | --detect [path] | Identify an existing LICENSE (SPDX tag or fingerprint) | | --update [path] | Bump copyright year in place (2023 → 2023-2026) | | --spdx | Print the SPDX identifier and exit | | --json | Emit JSON (works with --generate, --detect, --list) | | -l, --list | List every bundled license | | -h, --help | Show help | | --version | Show version |

Features worth calling out

SPDX tags on generated files

licenseme mit -n "Jane" --header gives you a block like:

/*
 * src/index.js
 * Copyright (c) 2026 Jane
 * SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
 *
 * Licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE file for full text.
 */

The SPDX-License-Identifier: line is the canonical way to mark source files per spdx.dev. Automated scanners (REUSE, ClearlyDefined, npm packages like license-checker) read it directly.

Detection — SPDX first, fingerprint fallback

--detect runs two passes:

Look for an explicit SPDX-License-Identifier: tag → 100% confidence.
Tokenize the file, compare Jaccard similarity against every bundled template → confidence score.

If confidence drops below 35%, it bails out instead of guessing. The source (spdx-tag vs fingerprint) is surfaced in the output so you can trust or double-check.

Year bump

JSON output

Everything has a --json mode:

licenseme --list --json | jq '.[] | select(.spdx == "AGPL-3.0-only")'
licenseme --detect ./LICENSE --json
licenseme mit -n Jane --json

Great for CI / scripts that need license metadata without parsing CLI output.

Programmatic use

const { generate, generateHeader, detect, updateYear, spdxId, list } =
  require('@v0idd0/licenseme/src/generator');

// Generate
const licenseText = generate('mit', { name: 'Jane', year: 2026 });

// Source-file header
const header = generateHeader('mit', {
  name: 'Jane',
  style: 'jsblock',
  file: 'src/index.js',
});

// Detect
const existing = require('fs').readFileSync('./LICENSE', 'utf8');
const detected = detect(existing);    // { key, spdx, name, confidence, source }

// Bump year
const updated = updateYear(existing, 2026);

// SPDX
spdxId('agpl-3.0');    // "AGPL-3.0-only"

// Catalog
list();                // [{ key, name, spdx, permissive }, ...]

From the same studio

vøiddo builds sharp, free-forever CLIs for devs who are tired of paywalls:

@v0idd0/jsonyo — JSON that yells at you when it's broken
@v0idd0/tokcount — token counter for 60+ LLMs
@v0idd0/ctxstuff — stuff a repo into an LLM context window
@v0idd0/promptdiff — diff two prompts
@v0idd0/httpwut — HTTP debugger with phase timing
@v0idd0/gitstats — local git analytics (hotspots, bus-factor, streaks)

Full catalog: voiddo.com/tools.