License Header Generator

Pick a license, set the year and copyright holder, and get back a properly-commented copyright header for your source file. The comment style is inferred from the filename — /* */ for .ts / .go / .css, # for .py / .sh, <!-- --> for .html, and so on. Sixteen SPDX-licensed templates included. Pure client-side, no upload, no tracking.

Inputs

License Year 4-digit year. Blank = current year. Copyright holder Name or organization that owns the copyright. Project name Required by copyleft licenses (GPL family, MPL). Target filename Used to infer the comment style. Comment style Auto (from filename) /* block */ # hash <!-- html --> ;; semicolon % percent Override the inferred style if you want. Use // line instead of /* block */

Header

block 0 chars 0 lines

Copy to clipboard Download .txt

License text (plain)

Plain-text version of the rendered license, with comment markers stripped. Useful for documentation, README files, or a LICENSE file at the root of your repository.

How it works

The 16 license templates are pulled from their canonical SPDX texts — nothing is paraphrased. The page substitutes {{year}}, {{holder}}, and {{project}} with your inputs (or with the placeholders [copyright holder] / [project name] if you leave a field blank), then wraps the result in the comment style inferred from your filename.

The filename extension controls the comment style: .ts / .js / .go / .rs / .css use /* */, .py / .sh / .rb / Dockerfile use #, .html / .vue / .astro use <!-- -->, .clj uses ;;, and .m (MATLAB) / .tex / .erl use %. Use the dropdown to override.

The output is plain text — no markdown, no HTML escape entities. Copy the result into the top of your file, or download it as .txt to verify the layout before pasting.

Which license should I pick?

Permissive: MIT, MIT-0 (no attribution required), Apache-2.0 (with patent grant), BSD-2-Clause, BSD-3-Clause (with non-endorsement), ISC, BlueOak-1.0.0, BSL-1.0. Pick one of these if you want the widest redistribution.

Copyleft: MPL-2.0 (file-level), LGPL-3.0 (library-friendly), GPL-3.0 (project-level), AGPL-3.0 (network use). Pick one of these if you want derivative works to stay open.

Public domain: Unlicense, CC0-1.0. No attribution required, no copyright retained. WTFPL is the humorous cousin. Pick one of these if you truly want unconditional reuse.