| name | copyright-check |
| description | Verify AMD copyright header compliance on files modified or introduced by ROCm. Checks presence, format, and year correctness. Use whenever reviewing a PR on the ROCm TransformerEngine fork, or when asked to audit copyright headers. |
Copyright Header Check
Audits AMD copyright headers on files that ROCm has modified or introduced. The
existing qa/L0_license/copyright_checker.py only validates NVIDIA headers —
this skill is the AMD-side counterpart.
Arguments
<base-branch> — diff against this ref (default: dev).--paths <glob>... — restrict the check to specific paths. Without this,
every file changed in the diff is checked.
Scope detection
Determine the file set to audit:
base="${1:-dev}"
git fetch origin "$base" --quiet
git diff --name-status "origin/$base"...HEAD
A = added — counts as ROCm-introduced.M / R = modified or renamed — counts as ROCm-modified.D = deleted — skip.
Skip files that the existing checker also skips (see qa/L0_license/config.json):
binaries, 3rdparty/, LICENSE, VERSION, .png, .ipynb, .json, .md,
.txt, Dockerfiles, generated files. Also skip files outside these extensions:
c, cpp, cu, h, cuh, hpp, hip, py, sh, cmake, yml, yaml, toml, rst, cfg,
plus CMakeLists.txt. If a file has none of those, note it as "unchecked
filetype" and move on — do not flag.
Header rules
Read the first 15 lines of each in-scope file (headers may sit below a
shebang and a coding declaration). The current year is $(date +%Y) — call it
Y. Use that value, do not hardcode it.
Comment-style families
| Family | Comment marker | File types |
|---|
| hash | # | py, sh, cmake, yml, yaml, toml, cfg, CMakeLists.txt |
| c-block | /* … */ or // | c, cpp, cu, h, cuh, hpp, hip |
| rst | .. (indented) | rst |
AMD copyright line — required form
<comment> Copyright (c) <YEARS>, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. All rights reserved.
where <YEARS> is either Y (single year) or Yfirst-Y (range ending in
the current year). Use a regex like:
Copyright \(c\) (\d{4})(-(\d{4}))?, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc\. All rights reserved\.
NVIDIA copyright line — preserved form
<comment> Copyright (c) <YEARS>, NVIDIA CORPORATION & AFFILIATES. All rights reserved.
File classification (in scope)
For each file, classify by its post-change content combined with its diff
status:
- ROCm-only file — added by ROCm, no NVIDIA copyright present.
Required: AMD copyright. NVIDIA copyright must NOT be added.
- Modified upstream file — already existed with a NVIDIA copyright before
this PR, ROCm is now changing it.
Required: BOTH AMD and NVIDIA copyright lines, AMD line first.
- Already-mixed file — already had both AMD and NVIDIA headers, ROCm is
modifying it again.
Required: both lines remain; AMD year extended to include
Y.
- Cherry-picked from upstream — added in this PR but contains a NVIDIA
copyright (file pulled from upstream NVIDIA TE).
Required: NVIDIA copyright preserved verbatim; AMD copyright added only if
the cherry-pick included AMD-authored modifications.
To distinguish (1) from (4) on added files: check git log of the upstream
remote (origin/upstream-main or whatever upstream tracking branch exists —
fall back to checking whether the path exists on origin/main). If unsure,
flag as "ambiguous" and let the human decide.
To know whether a modified file had a NVIDIA copyright before the PR:
git show "origin/$base:$path" | head -15 | grep -F "NVIDIA CORPORATION"
Year correctness
For every file in scope, the AMD copyright year must include the current year
Y:
- Single year
YYYY: must equal Y.
- Range
Yfirst-Ylast: Ylast must equal Y. Yfirst must be ≤ Ylast and
≥ the year the AMD copyright was first added (best-effort: git log --diff-filter=A --follow --format=%ad --date=format:%Y -- $path | tail -1).
For NVIDIA copyrights on modified files: the year MUST NOT have been changed
by this PR. Compare against git show "origin/$base:$path". ROCm changes do
not extend NVIDIA's copyright window.
Recommended-but-optional marker
Files in family (2) often carry the marker line:
<comment> This file was modified for portability to AMDGPU
Treat its absence as a note, not a failure. Its presence makes review
easier but is not legally required.
What NOT to flag
- Headers in files outside the diff scope (don't audit the whole tree).
- Stylistic differences (spacing, ordering of unrelated lines).
- The
License for AMD contributions = MIT. shorthand line — it's a valid
alternative to See LICENSE for license information. for AMD-only files.
- Files in
exclude_copyright from qa/L0_license/config.json.
Output format
## Copyright Header Audit: <base>...HEAD
### Summary
| Status | Count |
|---|---:|
| OK | <n> |
| Missing AMD copyright | <n> |
| Stale AMD year | <n> |
| Altered NVIDIA copyright | <n> |
| Ambiguous (needs human review) | <n> |
### Findings
#### <path>:<line>
- **Classification:** <ROCm-only | Modified upstream | Already-mixed | Cherry-pick | Ambiguous>
- **Issue:** <one-line description>
- **Found:** `<relevant line(s) from the file>`
- **Expected:** `<the line as it should be>`
- **Fix:** <minimal patch — usually a 1-3 line header replacement>
(repeat per finding; group by file)
If everything passes, output All <n> files in scope have correct AMD copyright headers. and stop — no per-file noise.
Notes for re-runs
When this skill is invoked from /claude review on the same PR a second time,
prior findings posted by claude[bot] will already exist as inline comments.
The orchestrator (the calling workflow) is responsible for deduplication; this
skill should always emit the full current set of findings and let the caller
decide what to post.
