Create a license file for your GitHub repo in 4 clicks

February 14, 2020 less than 1 minute read

Did you know you can create a well structured license file for your GitHub repo in 4 clicks? You do now!

Go to the root of your repo and click on the Create new file button (click 1).
On the next screen type in LICENSE, a button saying Choose a license template should pop up, click it (click 2).
You’ll be brought to a screen that allows you to pick from many licenses. I stick with Apache, click Apache 2.0 and click Review and submit (clicks 3 and 4).
At this point a new commit will be staged for you, if you have write permission you can choose to merge to master directly or create a pull request and merge it that way.

That’s it, you’re done, all in 4 clicks!

Okay, maybe I didn’t mention you have to punch in 7 characters too, but that wouldn’t make a catchy title.

Thoughts

This also works for Code of Conducts, just type in CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md instead of LICENSE.
Works if you don’t have write permission to the repo too, GitHub will automatically fork the repo to your account.