Adding a license to a repository

You can include an open source license in your repository to make it easier for other people to contribute.

In this article

If you include a detectable license in your repository, people who visit your repository will see it at the top of the repository page. To read the entire license file, click the license name.

Screenshot of the main page of the github-linguist/linguist repository. In the right sidebar, "MIT license," preceded by a law icon, is outlined in dark orange.

Open source licenses enable others to freely use, change, and distribute the project in your repository. For more information on repository licenses, see "Licensing a repository."

Including an open source license in your repository

  1. On GitHub, navigate to the main page of the repository.

  2. Above the list of files, select the Add file dropdown menu, then click Create new file.

    Alternatively, you can click in the file tree view on the left.

    Screenshot of the main page of a repository. Above the list of files, a button, labeled "Add file," is outlined in dark orange. In the file tree view of the repository, a button with a plus sign icon is also outlined in dark orange.

  3. In the file name field, type LICENSE or LICENSE.md (with all caps).

  4. Under the file name, click Choose a license template.

    Screenshot of the new file form, with "LICENSE" entered in the file name field. A button, labeled "Choose a license template," is outlined in dark orange.

  5. On the left side of the page, under "Add a license to your project," review the available licenses, then select a license from the list.

  6. Click Review and submit.

  7. Click Commit changes...

  8. In the "Commit message" field, type a short, meaningful commit message that describes the change you made to the file. You can attribute the commit to more than one author in the commit message. For more information, see "Creating a commit with multiple authors."

  9. Below the commit message fields, decide whether to add your commit to the current branch or to a new branch. If your current branch is the default branch, you should choose to create a new branch for your commit and then create a pull request. For more information, see "Creating a pull request."

    Screenshot of a GitHub pull request showing a radio button to commit directly to the main branch or to create a new branch. New branch is selected.

  10. If you have more than one email address associated with your account on GitHub, click the email address drop-down menu and select the email address to use as the Git author email address. Only verified email addresses appear in this drop-down menu. If you enabled email address privacy, then a no-reply will be the default commit author email address. For more information about the exact form the no-reply email address can take, see "Setting your commit email address."

    Screenshot of a GitHub pull request showing a dropdown menu with options to choose the commit author email address. octocat@github.com is selected.

  11. Click Commit changes or Propose changes.

Further reading