Licenses API

  • Tier: Free, Premium, Ultimate
  • Offering: GitLab.com, GitLab Self-Managed, GitLab Dedicated

In GitLab, there is an API endpoint available for working with various open source license templates. For more information on the terms of various licenses, see this site or any of the many other resources available online.

Users with the Guest role can’t access the license templates. For more information, see Project and group visibility.

List license templates

Get all license templates.

GET /templates/licenses
AttributeTypeRequiredDescription
popularbooleannoIf passed, returns only popular licenses

Example request:

curl "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/templates/licenses?popular=1"

Example response:

[
  {
    "key":"apache-2.0",
    "name":"Apache License 2.0",
    "nickname":null,
    "featured":true,
    "html_url":"http://choosealicense.com/licenses/apache-2.0/",
    "source_url":"http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.html",
    "description":"A permissive license that also provides an express grant of patent rights from contributors to users.",
    "conditions":[
      "include-copyright",
      "document-changes"
    ],
    "permissions":[
      "commercial-use",
      "modifications",
      "distribution",
      "patent-use",
      "private-use"
    ],
    "limitations":[
      "trademark-use",
      "no-liability"
    ],
    "content":"                                 Apache License\n                           Version 2.0, January 2004\n [...]"
  },
  {
    "key":"gpl-3.0",
    "name":"GNU General Public License v3.0",
    "nickname":"GNU GPLv3",
    "featured":true,
    "html_url":"http://choosealicense.com/licenses/gpl-3.0/",
    "source_url":"http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.txt",
    "description":"The GNU GPL is the most widely used free software license and has a strong copyleft requirement. When distributing derived works, the source code of the work must be made available under the same license.",
    "conditions":[
      "include-copyright",
      "document-changes",
      "disclose-source",
      "same-license"
    ],
    "permissions":[
      "commercial-use",
      "modifications",
      "distribution",
      "patent-use",
      "private-use"
    ],
    "limitations":[
      "no-liability"
    ],
    "content":"                    GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE\n                       Version 3, 29 June 2007\n [...]"
  },
  {
    "key":"mit",
    "name":"MIT License",
    "nickname":null,
    "featured":true,
    "html_url":"http://choosealicense.com/licenses/mit/",
    "source_url":"http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT",
    "description":"A permissive license that is short and to the point. It lets people do anything with your code with proper attribution and without warranty.",
    "conditions":[
      "include-copyright"
    ],
    "permissions":[
      "commercial-use",
      "modifications",
      "distribution",
      "private-use"
    ],
    "limitations":[
      "no-liability"
    ],
    "content":"The MIT License (MIT)\n\nCopyright (c) [year] [fullname]\n [...]"
  }
]

Single license template

Get a single license template. You can pass parameters to replace the license placeholder.

GET /templates/licenses/:key
AttributeTypeRequiredDescription
keystringyesThe key of the license template
projectstringnoThe copyrighted project name
fullnamestringnoThe full-name of the copyright holder

If you omit the fullname parameter but authenticate your request, the name of the authenticated user replaces the copyright holder placeholder.

Example request:

curl --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/templates/licenses/mit?project=My+Cool+Project"

Example response:

{
  "key":"mit",
  "name":"MIT License",
  "nickname":null,
  "featured":true,
  "html_url":"http://choosealicense.com/licenses/mit/",
  "source_url":"http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT",
  "description":"A permissive license that is short and to the point. It lets people do anything with your code with proper attribution and without warranty.",
  "conditions":[
    "include-copyright"
  ],
  "permissions":[
    "commercial-use",
    "modifications",
    "distribution",
    "private-use"
  ],
  "limitations":[
    "no-liability"
  ],
  "content":"The MIT License (MIT)\n\nCopyright (c) 2016 John Doe\n [...]"
}