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chore: cli/LICENSE is MIT (legacy) — should be Apache 2.0 to match repo #2572

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Description

@bpamiri

The monorepo has two LICENSE files, and they disagree.

Inconsistency:

  • Root LICENSE — Apache License 2.0
  • cli/LICENSE — MIT License, Copyright (c) 2016 Tom King

Origin: cli/LICENSE is a legacy artifact from when wheels-cli was a separate repository before monorepo consolidation. Tom King's original CommandBox module was MIT; when the CLI was folded into the monorepo, the LICENSE file came along.

Why it matters: SCA tools (Snyk, FOSSA, GitHub dependency graph) scanning subdirectories will classify this monorepo as dual-licensed (Apache-2.0 AND MIT). That's legally ambiguous for downstream consumers. Worse, contributors to cli/ since the merge have been submitting under inbound-equals-outbound assuming Apache 2.0 (since CONTRIBUTING and repo metadata say so), not MIT.

Fix options:

  1. Replace cli/LICENSE with a copy of Apache 2.0 + preserve Tom King's copyright in NOTICE for attribution. (Recommended — pairs with the NOTICE file issue.)
  2. Delete cli/LICENSE entirely and rely on the root Apache 2.0. Simpler but loses Tom King's copyright assertion entirely.

Option 1 is cleaner and matches Apache 2.0 §4(c)'s NOTICE mechanism.

Tasks:

  • Replace cli/LICENSE with Apache 2.0 text
  • Capture Tom King's 2016 copyright in NOTICE (or cli/NOTICE)
  • Verify no cli/box.json or cli/package.json claims "license": "MIT"

Should ship as part of the broader licensing-hygiene pass.

Activity

  1. wheels-bot commented on May 11, 2026

    @wheels-bot
    Contributor

    Wheels Bot — Triage

    Classified as other (project housekeeping / legal compliance chore).

    This issue tracks a licensing artifact — cli/LICENSE is MIT from the legacy standalone repo, while the root LICENSE is Apache 2.0. The tasks are concrete (replace the file, add a NOTICE entry, verify package manifests) but this is a legal/compliance maintenance item, not a software bug, framework design question, or documentation gap. No further bot action will be taken on this issue.

  2. added a commit that references this issue on May 12, 2026
    b998ec9
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