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LICENSE present

Without a license file, default copyright applies and nobody may legally reuse the code — however open the repository looks.

Gate ID
license_present
Severity
warning
Scope
Project root
Tags
project-hygiene

What it checks

Project root should declare a license (LICENSE / LICENSE.md / LICENSE.txt / COPYING).

Accepted at the project root only: LICENSE, LICENSE.*, COPYING, COPYING.*, UNLICENSE. Unlike the README check this one does not search subdirectories: a license buried in docs/ is not where tooling looks for it.

What a finding says

text
No LICENSE file at the project root. Pick a license (e.g. MIT, Apache-2.0) and add it as LICENSE.

Turning it off

Silence the gate for the whole project in .l0git.json:

json
{
  "ignore": ["license_present"]
}

Or keep it running at a lower severity:

json
{
  "severity": { "license_present": "info" }
}

See also

Released under the MIT License. · Privacy & legal