License Picker

What This Skill Does

The License Picker skill by bytesagain1 is a comprehensive toolkit designed to navigate the complex landscape of open-source software licensing. Whether you are an independent developer releasing your first project or a technical lead establishing compliance for a startup, this skill provides the necessary clarity and automation to choose, understand, and generate the correct legal documentation. It acts as an interactive consultant that guides you through the nuances of MIT, Apache 2.0, GPL, and other prominent licenses. Beyond simple selection, the skill provides comparative insights into restrictive versus permissive models, explains legal jargon into plain language, and offers guidance on how these licenses apply to commercial product distribution.

Installation

To add this skill to your OpenClaw environment, ensure you have the CLI configured. Run the following command in your terminal:

clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/bytesagain1/license-picker

Once installed, you can trigger the skill by invoking its namespace. No additional API keys or environment variables are required, as the logic is contained within the agentic skill package.

Use Cases

• License Selection: When you have a new code repository and are unsure which license best protects your intellectual property or aligns with your open-source goals.
• Compliance Checks: Comparing two different licenses to understand if a project's existing dependencies are compatible with your intended distribution model.
• Documentation Generation: Automating the creation of a standard LICENSE file that is ready to be committed directly into your repository root.
• Commercial Advisory: Determining whether specific viral licenses (like GPL) pose a risk to your proprietary commercial software stack.
• Educational Guidance: Learning about the implications of copyleft and attribution clauses through an interactive FAQ interface.

Example Prompts

1. "license-picker compare Apache-2.0 and MIT license, focusing on patent protection clauses."
2. "license-picker generate a license file for a public project under the GPL-3.0 license that mentions my company name as the holder."
3. "license-picker explain the commercial usage limitations if I incorporate a library that uses the AGPL-3.0 license into my SaaS product."

Tips & Limitations

• Tips: Use the compare command frequently if you are debating between two similar licenses. Use the explain command whenever you see a legal clause in an existing file that you don't fully understand. Keep your project goals clear—define whether you want to encourage maximum adoption or force downstream derivative works to stay open.
• Limitations: While this skill is powerful for generating templates and providing legal explanations, it is not a substitute for professional legal counsel. The skill provides information based on general standard license texts; specific complex corporate acquisitions or high-stakes licensing litigation should always be reviewed by a qualified attorney. Always ensure the generated LICENSE file name is formatted correctly for your specific project hosting platform (e.g., GitHub or GitLab).