generate-license

name

generate-license

description

Draft a fully custom license from scratch based on user-specified permissions, conditions, and limitations — for cases where no off-the-shelf license fits. Produces a LICENSE file plus an optional template entry saved into the user's template store for reuse. Use when the user says "draft a custom license", "I need a license that allows X but forbids Y", or after recommend-license declines all standard candidates.

Generate License

Draft a bespoke license. Always preface output with a clear non-legal-advice disclaimer and recommend the user have a lawyer review before publishing if the project is anything other than personal/experimental.

Steps

1. Elicit the full constraint set if not already provided. Use the same dimensions as recommend-license:
   • Project type, commercial use, modification, distribution, patent grant, network clause, attribution, share-alike, source disclosure, warranty, jurisdiction (optional).
2. Before drafting, re-check standard licenses against the constraints. If any standard license matches within ~95%, surface it and ask the user to confirm they really want a custom draft. Custom licenses fragment the OSS ecosystem and are not OSI-approved.
3. Draft the license with these sections:
   • Preamble — one paragraph stating intent.
   • Definitions — Software, Licensee, Licensor, Derivative Work, etc.
   • Grant of License — explicit list of permissions.
   • Conditions — what the licensee must do (attribution, share-alike, source disclosure, etc.).
   • Limitations — what the licensee may not do (commercial use, sublicensing, trademark use, etc.).
   • Patent provisions — if requested.
   • Termination — conditions under which the license terminates.
   • Disclaimer of Warranty — standard "AS IS" language.
   • Limitation of Liability — standard cap.
   • Governing Law — only if user specifies a jurisdiction.
4. Output the draft to LICENSE (or user-specified path). If LICENSE exists, diff and confirm.
5. Offer to save the draft as a reusable template in the user's template store with {{year}}, {{copyright_holder}}, {{project_name}} tokens extracted. Write frontmatter capturing the permissions/conditions/limitations so list-templates and recommend-license can match it later.
6. Print a closing summary listing every permission, condition, and limitation in the draft so the user can sanity-check the encoding of their intent.

Notes

• Do not provide legal advice. Always include the line: "This is a drafting aid, not legal advice. For any non-trivial use, have a lawyer review the license."
• Avoid copying the verbatim text of GPL, AGPL, or MPL into a custom draft — those licenses have specific terms about modification and redistribution of their own text.
• Keep the language plain and unambiguous. Do not add clauses the user did not request.