license
Check, choose and generate repository licenses. Runs automatically during init.
Commands
reposell license check
Detect the repository's license and report how it interacts with selling.
bash
$ reposell license check
✓ License detected: MIT (SPDX: MIT)
Selling via reposell: allowed.
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Detection order: root LICENSE* / COPYING files → manifest license fields (package.json, Cargo.toml, pyproject.toml, composer.json) → GitProvider license API as cross-check.
reposell license use <template>
Generate a LICENSE from a reposell template, filled with your details.
| Argument | Value |
|---|---|
<template> | rsl — RepoSell Source License 1.0 (source-available, fork-specific, AI reservations) |
bash
$ reposell license use rsl --holder "Enzo Vezzaro" --repo-url auto
✓ Generated LICENSE (RSL-1.0)
✓ Generated .reposell/ai-policy.json (machine-readable rights reservation)
Holder: Enzo Vezzaro · Repo: auto-detected
! Not committed — review the diff and commit yourself.
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Flags: --holder <name> (default: git config user.name), --repo-url auto|<url>, --year <year>, --no-policy (skip ai-policy.json), --force (replace an existing generated template file; never overwrites a hand-written license without it).
Fork Licenses are not issued by the CLI. The per-purchase Fork License is generated at listing checkout and signed by the listing's issuer key. The CLI only verifies them (reposell verify <license-file>).
reposell license keep
Explicitly keep your existing license. Records license: keep-existing in reposell.yml so future runs stop suggesting.
Behavior rules
- Never overwrites silently — generation shows a diff first; hand-written licenses require
--force. - Deterministic output: same inputs produce byte-identical license text, whose SHA-256 is recorded in your signed listing manifest.
- The generated
.reposell/ai-policy.jsonmirrors RSL-1.0's reservations in machine-readable form (headers and robots.txt signals are served by listing endpoints, not stored in your repo). - Unlicensed repositories cannot enable
/sell— buyers must receive terms. - These templates are source-available by design, not OSI open source. Don't describe RSL projects as open source.
reposell license compose
Compose a complete rights policy from a profile + overrides and write the machine-readable artifacts. See Licensing Policy & Compliance for the full model.
bash
$ reposell license compose --profile source-available-commercial --spdx LicenseRef-reposell-RSL-1.0
✓ Composed license policy — profile: source-available-commercial · SPDX: LicenseRef-reposell-RSL-1.0
✓ Policy hash: 9f2c… (bound into signed release manifests)
✓ Wrote .reposell/license.json
✓ Wrote .reposell/ai-policy.json
✓ Wrote .reposell/commercial-policy.json
✓ Wrote .reposell/authorization.json
✓ Appended policy section to LICENSE
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| Flag | Value |
|---|---|
--profile | One of the 15 profiles (see the guide) |
--spdx | SPDX expression (MIT, MIT OR Apache-2.0, LicenseRef-reposell-*) |
--exception | SPDX exception id |
--jurisdiction | Governing law for the LICENSE. No silent default — without it, the license keeps the [JURISDICTION] placeholder until you set it |
--set right=value | Override any single right (repeatable) |
reposell license explain
Plain-language summary of the active policy (from .reposell/license.json or composed from reposell.yml), including the policy hash.
reposell license validate
Validates the .reposell/* artifacts: schema, completeness (policies must be total — no missing rights), and cross-file coherence (derived policies must be subsets of the canonical policy).
reposell license compatibility <dep> [project]
SPDX family compatibility: compatible, compatible-with-conditions, incompatible, or unknown (unknown identifiers are never guessed).
bash
$ reposell license compatibility GPL-3.0-only
GPL-3.0-only → MIT: incompatible
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