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License Analysis

github-actions[bot] edited this page Jun 11, 2026 · 1 revision

License Analysis

The License Analysis page gives a component-by-component view of the open-source licenses detected in the latest scan and flags any that conflict with your policy.

URL: /projects/{id}/license


How License Data is Collected

OsWL queries deps.dev (Google's Open Source Insights API) for each scanned library to obtain the SPDX license expression. This is matched against a global license policy to determine the compliance status.


License Status

Each component is assigned one of four license statuses:

Status Meaning Badge color
PERMITTED License is explicitly allowed by policy Green
CAUTION License requires review (e.g. weak copyleft) Yellow
RESTRICTED License is flagged as incompatible (e.g. strong copyleft used in proprietary code) Red
UNKNOWN SPDX identifier not yet fetched or not recognized Gray

The overall project license badge shown on the Projects dashboard reflects the worst status among all components.


License Policy

The license policy is a list of SPDX identifiers mapped to a status. System Admins and users with LICENSE_POLICY_MANAGE permission can manage policy entries.

Editing Policy Entries

  1. Open the License Analysis page for any project.
  2. Click Manage Policy (requires LICENSE_POLICY_MANAGE).
  3. Add, edit, or remove SPDX ↔ status mappings.

Policy entries apply globally across all projects.

Common SPDX Identifiers

SPDX ID License name Typical policy
MIT MIT License PERMITTED
Apache-2.0 Apache License 2.0 PERMITTED
BSD-2-Clause BSD 2-Clause PERMITTED
BSD-3-Clause BSD 3-Clause PERMITTED
ISC ISC License PERMITTED
LGPL-2.1-only GNU LGPL 2.1 CAUTION
LGPL-3.0-only GNU LGPL 3.0 CAUTION
MPL-2.0 Mozilla Public License 2.0 CAUTION
GPL-2.0-only GNU GPL 2.0 RESTRICTED
GPL-3.0-only GNU GPL 3.0 RESTRICTED
AGPL-3.0-only GNU AGPL 3.0 RESTRICTED
SSPL-1.0 Server Side Public License RESTRICTED

Filtering

Use the filter bar to narrow the license view by:

  • Status — PERMITTED / CAUTION / RESTRICTED / UNKNOWN
  • Ecosystem — MAVEN / NPM / PYPI / etc.
  • Search — free-text across component name and SPDX identifier

AI License Insights

If an AI provider is configured, each completed scan generates:

  • License Risk Trend Insight — narrative summary comparing license compliance against the previous scan.
  • Per-library AI Summary — a one-sentence compliance risk statement visible in the Component Detail panel.

Understanding Version Status

The License Analysis page also surfaces two additional signals from deps.dev:

Signal Description
Not Latest A newer stable version exists — consider upgrading
Deprecated The package version is officially deprecated; the deprecation reason is shown

These signals are informational and do not affect the license status.


Exporting reports

Users with LICENSE_EXPORT (or System Admin) can download:

  • NOTICE file — attribution text for distributions
  • SPDX SBOM — machine-readable bill of materials

Exports require project membership as well as the permission. See Authorization layers.

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