licop - License Checker for npm Projects

A modern CLI for auditing dependency licenses and enforcing license risk in CI.

licop scans your project's node_modules directory, reads installed package.json files, extracts license metadata, and classifies each dependency into one of four risk levels:

• safe
• warning
• danger
• unknown

This helps you identify potential licensing risks before shipping your software — especially important for commercial, proprietary, or distributed projects.

Installation

pnpm add -D licop
# or
npm install --save-dev licop
# or
yarn add -D licop

Usage

npx licop

Example Output

licop prints a clear terminal table like this:

with --json

npx licop --json

{
  "safe": [
    {
      "name": "vitest",
      "version": "4.0.18",
      "license": "MIT",
      "repository": "git+https://github.com/vitest-dev/vitest.git",
      "risk": "safe"
    }
  ],
  "warning": [],
  "danger": [],
  "unknown": []
}

with --csv

npx licop --csv

Generates a machine-readable CSV report including repository metadata.

Exit codes (CI enforcement)

• 0: No danger dependencies found.
• 1: At least one danger dependency detected.

Risk Levels

safe

Permissive licenses with minimal restrictions.
Generally safe for commercial and closed-source use.

• MIT
• ISC
• Apache-2.0
• BSD-2-Clause
• BSD-3-Clause
• Unlicense
• CC0-1.0

warning

Weak copyleft or conditional licenses.
May impose requirements such as source disclosure of modifications.
Legal review recommended before production use.

• LGPL-2.1
• LGPL-3.0
• MPL-2.0
• EPL-2.0
• GPL-2.0-only
• GPL-3.0-only
• AGPL-3.0-only
• GPL-2.0-or-later
• GPL-3.0-or-later
• AGPL-3.0-or-later

danger

Strong copyleft licenses.
May require open-sourcing your entire project if you distribute it.

• GPL-2.0
• GPL-3.0
• AGPL-3.0
• SSPL-1.0
• LGPL-2.1-only
• LGPL-3.0-only
• LGPL-2.1-or-later
• LGPL-3.0-or-later

unknown

Licenses that are unrecognized or missing.
Use caution and consider legal review before use.

• Any unrecognized or missing license value.

Documentation

→ See Capabilities for full documentation.

Feedback & contributions

Issues and pull requests are welcome.
→ See CONTRIBUTING for details.

License

Licensed under the Apache-2.0 license.

Created by chrilleweb