missing-license

A GitHub Action that scans an organisation for public repositories without a license and opens issues to notify owners.

Usage

Add a workflow file to your repository:

name: Check for missing licenses

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: "0 9 * * 1"  # every Monday at 09:00 UTC
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  missing-license:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: alan-turing-institute/missing-license@v1
        with:
          gh_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          organization: my-org

Inputs

Input	Required	Default	Description
gh_token	Yes*	—	GitHub token or PAT with repo and issues write access
app_id	Yes*	—	GitHub App ID (alternative to gh_token)
app_private_key	Yes*	—	GitHub App private key PEM
app_installation_id	Yes*	—	GitHub App installation ID
organization	Yes	—	GitHub organisation to scan
issue_title	No	Adding a license to your repository	Title for issues opened on unlicensed repos
issue_body_path	No	bundled template	Path to a markdown file used as the issue body. Supports {repo_name} placeholder
exempt_repos	No	—	Comma-separated list of repository names to skip
dry_run	No	false	If true, log findings but do not open issues

*Provide either gh_token or all three of app_id, app_private_key, and app_installation_id.

Authentication

Personal access token (PAT):

with:
  gh_token: ${{ secrets.MY_PAT }}
  organization: my-org

GitHub App:

with:
  app_id: ${{ secrets.APP_ID }}
  app_private_key: ${{ secrets.APP_PRIVATE_KEY }}
  app_installation_id: ${{ secrets.APP_INSTALLATION_ID }}
  organization: my-org

Custom issue body

By default the action uses the issue_body.md found at src/missing_license/issue_body.md. To use your own template, add a markdown file to your repo and pass its path:

with:
  gh_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
  organization: my-org
  issue_body_path: .github/missing-license-body.md

The template supports a {repo_name} placeholder which is replaced with the name of each unlicensed repository.

Behaviour

• Archived repositories are skipped.
• Repositories listed in exempt_repos are skipped.
• If a matching issue (open or closed) already exists on a repository, no new issue is opened. A closed issue is treated as an intentional choice to remain unlicensed.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for instructions on how to contribute.

License

Distributed under the terms of the MIT license.

Disclaimer

This action has been developed with Claude code.