pip-licenses

What it is and what it does

pip-licenses is a CLI tool that inspects your Python environment and generates a report of all installed packages and their licenses. It works by querying package metadata and Trove Classifiers to determine license information, then formats the results in your choice of output format. The tool supports multiple output formats including plain text, JSON, CSV, Markdown, HTML, reST, and Confluence markup, making it easy to integrate license audits into documentation, compliance workflows, or CI/CD pipelines.

The package is designed for developers and DevOps teams who need to track software licenses in their Python projects. It can filter packages, sort by various fields, include additional metadata like authors and URLs, and even verify that only approved licenses are in use. With support for modern Python versions and active maintenance, it handles the common use case of generating license inventories without requiring external dependencies beyond prettytable and tomli.

Use it for:

• Generate a license compliance report for your project's dependencies to include in documentation or legal review.
• Audit installed packages to ensure only approved licenses are present in your environment.
• Export license information to JSON or CSV for integration into license management systems.
• Create a Markdown or HTML license table for inclusion in project README or documentation.
• Verify that a Docker container or deployment environment contains only permissively licensed packages.

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

A command-line tool that scans installed Python packages and outputs their license information in multiple formats (plain text, JSON, CSV, Markdown, HTML, and others).

Yes. pip-licenses is a straightforward, actively maintained tool with no known vulnerabilities, minimal dependencies, and a clear single purpose. It's worth installing if you need to audit or document the licenses of your Python dependencies—whether for compliance, documentation, or internal policy enforcement.

Install

pip-licenses on PyPI

pip install pip-licenses

uv add pip-licenses

poetry add pip-licenses

Installing pip-licenses

Before you install

Low friction install with only two lightweight runtime dependencies (prettytable and tomli). The project is actively maintained with a recent release and no known vulnerabilities.

License in practice

MIT license permits use, modification, and distribution with minimal restrictions, making it suitable for both open-source and commercial projects.

Quickstart

$ pip install pip-licenses
$ pip-licenses
# Output: Name | Version | License
# Django | 2.0.2 | BSD
# pytz | 2017.3 | MIT

Requires Python 3.9 or later; earlier Python versions are not supported.

Verify before relying

• Whether the tool correctly identifies licenses for packages that declare them only in Trove Classifiers vs. package metadata in all edge cases.
• Performance characteristics when scanning environments with hundreds or thousands of installed packages.

Package facts

Evidence: pip_licenses-5.5.5-py3-none-any.whl

Keywords: pip, pypi, package, license, check, audit

Tags

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