InnerSource License Generator

A web application that generates customized InnerSource software licenses for organizations. Built and maintained under the FINOS umbrella, it helps legal and engineering teams compose licenses that govern internal software sharing — covering scope, distribution, attribution, GenAI/LLM access controls, warranty, and authorizing-body clauses.

Status: Active development. Suitable for evaluation; obtain legal review before applying any generated license in a production context.

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Table of Contents

• Description
• Prerequisites
• Installation
• Running the Server
• Docker
• API Usage
• Testing
• Directory Structure
• License
• Contributing
• Code of Conduct

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Description

InnerSource is the practice of applying open-source collaboration patterns inside an organization. Unlike public open-source licenses, InnerSource licenses need to restrict access to internal parties, define internal attribution requirements, and set rules around tools like generative AI models.

This tool provides a guided web form that lets you select clauses for:

Dimension	Options
Scope	Code, documentation, data, DevOps artifacts
Boundary	Organization only / subsidiaries / contracted vendors
Territory	Geographic jurisdiction of the license
Attribution	None / copyright holder / organization project
Distribution	None / central project / share-alike / open redistribution
GenAI / LLM access	Prohibited / attribution required / unrestricted
Warranty	As-is / security fixes / bug fixes
Authorizing body	OSPO / Inner Source Committee / custom

The generated license can be downloaded as Markdown, PDF, or Word (.docx).

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Prerequisites

• Python 3.11 or later
• pip (comes with Python)
• (Optional) Docker, for containerized deployment

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Installation

# 1. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/finos/innersource-license-generator.git
cd innersource-license-generator

# 2. Create and activate a virtual environment
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate        # macOS / Linux
# .venv\Scripts\activate         # Windows

# 3. Install runtime dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

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Running the Server

uvicorn src.api.main:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000 --reload

Open http://localhost:8000 in your browser.

Interactive API documentation (Swagger UI) is available at http://localhost:8000/docs.

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
SECRET_KEY	random at startup	Session signing key — set a stable value in production
SESSION_HTTPS_ONLY	false	Set to true when serving over HTTPS to add the Secure cookie flag

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Docker

# Build the image
docker build -t innersource-license-generator .

# Run the container
docker run -p 8000:8000 \
  -e SECRET_KEY=your-secret-key \
  -e SESSION_HTTPS_ONLY=true \
  innersource-license-generator

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API Usage

For programmatic access, use the JSON API endpoint:

curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/api/generate \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "organization_name": "Acme Corp",
    "copyright_holder": "Engineering Team",
    "scope": ["code", "docs"],
    "boundary": "orgonly",
    "attribution": "copyat",
    "distribution": "noredist",
    "llm": "LLM_noread",
    "warranty": "asis",
    "authbody": "OSPO"
  }'

Returns a JSON object with license_text (plain text) and human_readable (clause summary). Full schema is available in the Swagger UI at /docs.

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Testing

# Install test dependencies
pip install -r test_requirements.txt

# Run the full test suite
python -m pytest test/ -v

The test suite includes:

• Unit tests — API logic, form validation, HTMX partial rendering (via FastAPI TestClient)
• Physical download tests — spin up a real uvicorn process, POST form data, download each format (MD, PDF, DOCX) to a temporary directory, and verify the files from disk

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Directory Structure

innersource-license-generator/
├── src/
│   ├── api/
│   │   ├── main.py                  # FastAPI application factory, middleware
│   │   ├── routes/
│   │   │   └── license.py           # Form, HTMX, download, and JSON API routes
│   │   └── models/
│   │       └── schemas.py           # Pydantic v2 request/response models
│   ├── core/
│   │   └── license_generator.py     # Clause assembly logic (Jinja2 rendering)
│   ├── license-clauses/             # Plain-text Jinja2 clause templates
│   ├── templates/
│   │   ├── index.html               # Main form (HTMX + Alpine.js)
│   │   ├── result.html              # Full-page result wrapper
│   │   ├── error.html               # Error page
│   │   └── components/
│   │       └── license_result.html  # HTMX partial — license output + download buttons
│   └── static/
│       └── styles.css               # Application stylesheet
├── test/
│   ├── conftest.py                  # pytest fixtures (TestClient + live_server)
│   └── test_sanity.py               # Unit and physical download tests
├── docs/                            # Additional documentation
├── Dockerfile
├── requirements.txt
├── test_requirements.txt
├── LICENSE.txt                      # Apache License 2.0
├── CONTRIBUTING.md
└── CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md

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License

This project is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. See LICENSE.txt for the full license text.

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Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines on filing issues, the Developer Certificate of Origin requirement, and the pull request process.

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Code of Conduct

This project follows the FINOS Community Code of Conduct. By participating, you agree to abide by its terms.