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License Report Generator

About the License Report Generator

The License Report Generator is an essential developer tool that automates the auditing of open-source dependencies. By parsing your package.json, it provides a comprehensive breakdown of the licenses associated with your direct npm packages.

Core Capabilities

  • Instant Dependency Parsing: Extracts dependencies directly from your package.json without executing any local code.
  • Automated Registry Lookup: Cross-references packages with the public npm registry to retrieve exact, up-to-date license metadata.
  • Compliance Insights: Identifies permissive vs. restrictive licenses using categorization data from ScanCode LicenseDB.

Frequently Asked Questions

What packages are checked during the generation?

Only the direct dependencies explicitly declared in your provided package.json are evaluated. Transitive dependencies are excluded to maintain a focused compliance scope.

What happens if a license cannot be found?

If a package is not found on the npm registry, or if its license data is missing, the tool explicitly marks the license as UNKNOWN in the final report, signaling that manual verification is required.