Copyright CLI Tool

A professional, multi-language copyright header management tool. Ensure compliance, maintain consistency, and manage project licensing with ease.

Features

Core Capabilities

• Multi-Language Support: Support for Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Java, C/C++, Go, Rust, and Shell scripts.
• Intelligent Year Management: Automatic year range management with full 4-digit years (e.g., 2024-2026).
• Header Removal: Seamlessly strip copyright headers from files for open-source contributions.
• Git Integration: Automatic discovery of company name and email from Git configurations.
• SPDX Compliance: Full support for SPDX license identifiers and machine-readable formats.
• Configuration Layers: Flexible settings via .copyright.toml, pyproject.toml, or user-wide configuration.
• Validation Suite: Verify compliance in CI/CD pipelines without modifying source files.
• Preview Mode: Safely review pending changes using dry-run and verbose logging.

Installation

pip install copyright-cli-tool

Or install from source:

git clone https://github.com/rohan7654/copyright-cli-tool.git
cd copyright-cli-tool
pip install -e .

Quick Start

# Add copyright headers to current directory
copyright

# Specify company name
copyright --company "AcmeCorp"

# Use SPDX format with license
copyright --license MIT --format spdx

# Preview changes without modifying files
copyright --dry-run --verbose

# Validate headers in CI/CD
copyright --check

Usage

Basic Usage

# Process current directory with auto-detected company
copyright

# Specify path and company
copyright --path ./src --company "AcmeCorp"

# Add email to headers
copyright --company "AcmeCorp" --email "info@acmecorp.com"

Multi-Language Projects

# Process multiple file types
copyright --extensions .py .js .ts .java

# Process JavaScript/TypeScript project
copyright --extensions .js .ts .jsx .tsx

Exclusion Patterns

# Exclude specific patterns
copyright --exclude "tests/*" "docs/*" "*_test.py"

# Ignore .gitignore patterns
copyright --no-gitignore

SPDX Format

# Use SPDX format with license identifier
copyright --license MIT --format spdx

# Traditional format (default)
copyright --license MIT --format traditional

SPDX Format Output:

# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 AcmeCorp <info@acmecorp.com>

Traditional Format Output:

# Copyright 2026 AcmeCorp. All rights reserved.

Validation Mode (CI/CD)

# Check if all files have valid headers
copyright --check

# Check with verbose output
copyright --check --verbose

# Exit code: 0 if valid, 1 if invalid

Dry-Run Mode

# Preview what would change
copyright --dry-run

# See detailed changes
copyright --dry-run --verbose

Remove Mode

The tool provides a dedicated mode for stripping copyright headers from source files. This is particularly useful for contributors preparing code for open-source repositories where project-wide headers are managed separately.

# Remove copyright headers from all Python files
copyright --remove

# Remove from specific file types
copyright --remove --extensions .py .js .ts

# Preview removal without modifying files
copyright --remove --dry-run --verbose

# Remove from specific directory
copyright --path ./src --remove

Configuration

Create a .copyright.toml file in your project root or ~/.copyright.toml for user-wide settings:

[tool.copyright]
company = "AcmeCorp"
email = "info@acmecorp.com"
license = "MIT"
format = "traditional"
file_extensions = [".py", ".js", ".ts", ".java"]
exclude = [
    "tests/*",
    "docs/*",
    "*_test.py"
]

Or add to your pyproject.toml:

[tool.copyright]
company = "AcmeCorp"
email = "info@acmecorp.com"
license = "Apache-2.0"
format = "spdx"

Configuration Priority

When resolving properties like the company name or email, the tool follows a layered priority system:

1. Command-line arguments: Flags provided directly to the CLI.
2. Local Configuration: .copyright.toml in the current working directory.
3. Project Metadata: [tool.copyright] section in pyproject.toml.
4. User Defaults: ~/.copyright.toml in the user home directory.
5. Auto-discovery: Intelligence gathered from Git config (user.name, user.email).
6. Interactive Prompt: If all previous layers fail to provide a company name, the tool will gracefully prompt for interactive input.

Advanced Usage

Pre-commit Hook

Add to your .pre-commit-config.yaml:

repos:
  - repo: local
    hooks:
      - id: copyright-check
        name: Check copyright headers
        entry: copyright --check
        language: system
        pass_filenames: false
        always_run: true

GitHub Actions

Create .github/workflows/copyright-check.yml:

name: Copyright Check

on: [pull_request, push]

jobs:
  check:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: "3.10"
      - run: pip install copyright-cli-tool
      - run: copyright --check --company "Your Company"

GitLab CI

Add to your .gitlab-ci.yml:

copyright-check:
  stage: test
  image: python:3.10
  script:
    - pip install copyright-cli-tool
    - copyright --check --company "Your Company"

Supported Languages

Language	Extensions	Comment Style
Python	.py	#
JavaScript	.js, .jsx, .mjs	//
TypeScript	.ts, .tsx	//
Java	.java	//
C	.c, .h	//
C++	.cpp, .hpp, .cc, .hh, .cxx	//
Go	.go	//
Rust	.rs	//
Shell	.sh, .bash	#

Command-Line Options

usage: copyright [-h] [--version] [--path PATH] [--company COMPANY]
                 [--email EMAIL] [--license LICENSE]
                 [--format {traditional,spdx}]
                 [--extensions EXTENSIONS [EXTENSIONS ...]]
                 [--exclude EXCLUDE [EXCLUDE ...]] [--config CONFIG]
                 [--dry-run] [--check] [--remove] [--verbose] [--no-gitignore]

Options:
  -h, --help            Show this help message and exit
  --version, -v         Show program's version number and exit
  --path PATH, -p PATH  Directory path to scan (default: current directory)
  --company COMPANY, -c COMPANY
                        Company name for copyright header
  --email EMAIL, -e EMAIL
                        Email address for copyright header
  --license LICENSE, -l LICENSE
                        SPDX license identifier (e.g., MIT, Apache-2.0)
  --format {traditional,spdx}, -f {traditional,spdx}
                        Header format (default: traditional)
  --extensions EXTENSIONS [EXTENSIONS ...]
                        File extensions to process (e.g., .py .js .ts)
  --exclude EXCLUDE [EXCLUDE ...]
                        Glob patterns to exclude (e.g., 'tests/*' 'docs/*')
  --config CONFIG       Path to custom configuration file
  --dry-run, -n         Preview changes without modifying files
  --check               Validate headers without modification (exit 1 if issues)
  --remove, -r          Remove copyright headers from files
  --verbose             Show detailed output for each file
  --no-gitignore        Don't respect .gitignore patterns

Examples

Example 1: New Project Setup

# Initialize copyright headers for a Python project
copyright --company "MyCompany" --license MIT

# Or use configuration file
cat > .copyright.toml << EOF
[tool.copyright]
company = "MyCompany"
license = "MIT"
file_extensions = [".py"]
EOF

copyright

Example 2: Multi-Language Project

# Process Python, JavaScript, and TypeScript files
copyright --company "TechCorp" \
          --extensions .py .js .ts \
          --exclude "node_modules/*" "dist/*"

Example 3: SPDX Compliance

# Use SPDX format for open-source project
copyright --company "OpenSource Inc" \
          --email "oss@example.com" \
          --license Apache-2.0 \
          --format spdx

Example 4: CI/CD Integration

# In CI pipeline
copyright --check --company "CI Corp"

# With custom config
copyright --check --config .copyright.toml

Year Range Logic

The tool intelligently manages copyright year ranges with full 4-digit years:

Existing Header	Current Year	Result
Copyright 2025 AcmeCorp. All rights...	2026	Copyright 2025-2026 AcmeCorp. All rights...
Copyright 2025-2026 AcmeCorp. All rights..	2026	(unchanged)
(no header)	2026	Copyright 2026 AcmeCorp. All rights...
Copyright 2024-2025 AcmeCorp. All rights..	2026	Copyright 2024-2026 AcmeCorp. All rights...

Troubleshooting

Issue: Git auto-detection not working

Solution: Ensure you're in a git repository and have configured git:

git config user.name "Your Name"
git config user.email "your@email.com"

Issue: Files not being processed

Solution: Check if files are excluded by .gitignore or default exclusions. Use --no-gitignore or --verbose to debug.

Issue: Unsupported file type

Solution: The file extension may not be supported yet. Check the supported languages table above.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please follow these steps:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Make your changes
4. Add tests if applicable
5. Run tests: pytest
6. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
7. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
8. Open a Pull Request

Development Setup

git clone https://github.com/rohan7654/copyright-cli-tool.git
cd copyright-cli-tool
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

You are free to:

• Use the software commercially
• Modify and distribute the code
• Include it in private or open-source projects

Under the following conditions:

• The original copyright and license notice must be included
• The software is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind

Support

If you encounter any issues or have questions:

• Open a GitHub Issue
• Include clear steps to reproduce the issue
• Provide environment details (OS, Python version, etc.)

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for a detailed history of changes.

Acknowledgments

• Built with Rich for beautiful terminal output
• Inspired by tools like addlicense, licenseheaders, and HashiCorp Copywrite
• Thanks to all contributors and users

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Made with care by Rohan | GitHub | Issues