---
id: license-expression
version: "30.4.4"
license: Apache-2.0
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# license-expression — license-expression is a comprehensive utility library to parse, compare, simplify and normalize license expressions (such as SPDX license expressions) using boolean logic.

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Popularity: top 1,000 on PyPI

## Install

pip install license-expression
uv add license-expression
poetry add license-expression

## Description

==================
license-expression
==================

``license-expression`` is a comprehensive utility library to parse, compare,
simplify and normalize license expressions (such as SPDX license expressions)
using boolean logic.

- License: Apache-2.0
- Python: 3.9+
- Homepage: https://github.com/aboutcode-org/license-expression/
- Install: `pip install license-expression` also available in most Linux distro.

Software project licenses are often a combination of several free and open
source software licenses. License expressions -- as specified by SPDX -- provide
a concise and human readable way to express these licenses without having to
read long license texts, while still being machine-readable.

License expressions are used by key FOSS projects such as Linux; several
packages ecosystem use them to document package licensing metadata such as
npm and Rubygems; they are important when exchanging software data (such as with
SPDX and SBOM in general) as a way to express licensing precisely.

``license-expression`` is a comprehensive utility library to parse, compare,
simplify and normalize these license expressions (such as SPDX license expressions)
using boolean logic like...

## AI interpretation — verify before relying

Parses, validates, compares, and normalizes license expressions (including SPDX format) using boolean logic to handle complex multi-license combinations.

Verdict: Production-ready library for parsing and normalizing SPDX and custom license expressions. No known vulnerabilities, permissive Apache-2.0 license, minimal dependencies, and active maintenance make it a solid choice for license metadata handling in compliance and SBOM workflows.

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/license-expression) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/license-expression/)