# google/go-licenses

A lightweight tool to report on the licenses used by a Go package and its dependencies. Highlight! Versioned external URL to licenses can be found at the same time.

Repository: https://github.com/google/go-licenses
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/go-licenses
Language: Go
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: license, license-management, license-checking, go, golang
Last push: 2026-07-09T18:03:15+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 77/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 91, release rhythm 47, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2486, "days_push": 55, "days_rel": 359, "gap_med": 6, "n_releases_24m": 2}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1012, forks 138 (observed 2026-08-28T04:03:13.365474+00:00)

## What it is
A Go CLI tool that analyzes a Go package's dependency tree and reports the licenses of all libraries used, with versioned URLs to each license. It can also collect license documents, copyright notices, and source code into a directory to comply with redistribution terms.

## Use cases
- generate a license report for a Go binary's dependencies
- check which licenses my Go project's dependencies use
- collect license files and copyright notices for redistribution compliance
- find versioned URLs to dependency licenses
- audit Go module licenses in CI
- detect forbidden licenses in a Go dependency tree

## When to choose
- you build Go software and need license compliance reporting or redistribution artifacts
- you want a lightweight, installable-via-go-install tool maintained by Google

## When to avoid
- you need license scanning for non-Go languages
- you need full SBOM generation or policy enforcement beyond license reporting

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: active
- function: developer-tools, security, dependency-audit, cli
- domain: developer-tools, legal, version-control
- platform: go, cli, cross-platform
- tags: license-compliance, go-modules, dependency-analysis, license-reporting, redistribution

## Member repositories
- google/go-licenses (main) score 77

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:13.365474+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T07:11:45.476698+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/google/go-licenses (fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:13.365474+00:00, sha 9e1a9f46c6cb)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.