NOTICE File Generator

Generate deterministic, sorted NOTICE files for individual packages or all packages at once, covering model, JS, Python, and C++ dependency attributions.

Relationship to the CI license gate (this SKILL is the fallback)

As of QVAC-21554, license/compliance enforcement on Tier-1 PRs is primarily a CI gate — .github/workflows/license-compliance.yml, delegating to the org reusable workflow public-reusable-license.yml (design: tetherto/qvac-actions/docs/license-compliance-ci.md). The gate deterministically classifies newly added PR dependencies against the org policy (allow/deny/review), honours .github/license-allowlist.yml, and posts a PR comment.

This SKILL is now the human fallback for the long tail the gate cannot decide:

• Novel / unclassifiable licenses. When the gate blocks a High finding it cannot classify, run check-forbidden-licenses.js to investigate, then record the decision in .github/license-allowlist.yml (CODEOWNERS-reviewed) or remove/replace the dependency. The gate is deterministic from then on.
• Full transitive audit. The CI gate reads GitHub's dependency graph, which is manifest-only in this repo (package lockfiles are gitignored), so it does not resolve the full transitive tree. check-forbidden-licenses.js does a real npm install + license-checker (plus Python/C++/model scans) and is the tool for a complete audit — e.g. before a release, or when the gate's coverage is insufficient.
• NOTICE authoring. The gate only verifies NOTICE presence (advisory). Generating/updating the NOTICE files themselves remains this SKILL's generate-notice.js job.

When to use this skill

Use when:

• Generating or updating NOTICE files for any package
• Adding new third-party dependencies that need attribution
• Preparing a release that requires up-to-date NOTICE files
• User invokes /qv-notice-generate

Prerequisites

Before running, ensure .env is sourced and contains:

• GH_TOKEN -- GitHub token (access to private repos and GitHub API)
• HF_TOKEN -- HuggingFace token (model license verification)
• NPM_TOKEN -- npm registry token (private package resolution)

System requirements for Python scanning:

• python3 and pip available in PATH (for pip-licenses)

Workflow

1. Ask which package to generate NOTICE for (or --all for all packages)
2. Source .env in the shell
3. Run the generator script — this writes NOTICE files directly
4. If JS stdout is Found 0 JS dependencies while HEAD's NOTICE still has a JS section, restore that JS block from HEAD. (npm install failed is written to gitignored NOTICE_LOG.txt, not stdout.) Keep successful model-scan additions. Do not commit a wiped JS section.
5. Only use --dry-run if the user explicitly asks for it

Do NOT commit changes. The user will review and commit manually.

Running the scripts

Generate NOTICE for a specific package

source .env
node .agents/skills/qv-notice-generate/scripts/generate-notice.js <package-dir-name>

Example: node .agents/skills/qv-notice-generate/scripts/generate-notice.js sdk

For registry sub-packages use the full path:

• registry-server/client
• registry-server/shared

Generate NOTICE for all packages

source .env
node .agents/skills/qv-notice-generate/scripts/generate-notice.js --all

Dry-run (no file writes, safe for testing)

source .env
node .agents/skills/qv-notice-generate/scripts/generate-notice.js --all --dry-run
node .agents/skills/qv-notice-generate/scripts/generate-notice.js sdk --dry-run

In dry-run mode:

• No files are written (NOTICE, NOTICE_LOG.txt, FORBIDDEN_LICENSES.txt)
• All scans run fully (npm install, license-checker, pip-licenses, GitHub API, models)
• NOTICE content is previewed in the console instead of written to disk

Check for disallowed licenses

source .env
node .agents/skills/qv-notice-generate/scripts/check-forbidden-licenses.js --all --dry-run
node .agents/skills/qv-notice-generate/scripts/check-forbidden-licenses.js --all

Uses an allowlist approach. The ALLOWED_LICENSES array in config.js controls which licenses pass:

• Empty list (default) -- every license is allowed (open gate). Useful while you are still cataloguing your deps.
• Populated list -- only those SPDX identifiers pass; anything else is a violation.

License strings from all sources (npm, PyPI, GitHub, models) are normalized to canonical SPDX ids before comparison, so adding apache-2.0 to the list automatically covers Apache 2.0, Apache Software License, Apache License 2.0, etc.

If violations are found, writes FORBIDDEN_LICENSES.txt to the repo root and exits with code 1.

Important: The agent should NOT edit ALLOWED_LICENSES directly. Present the scan results to the user and let them decide which licenses to allow. The allowlist and normalization map live in .agents/skills/qv-notice-generate/scripts/constants.js.

Generate license overview report

node .agents/skills/qv-notice-generate/scripts/generate-report.js

Reads existing NOTICE files across all packages (no scanning, no tokens needed) and produces NOTICE_FULL_REPORT.txt with:

• Global license distribution with counts and percentages
• Per-package breakdown by dependency type (models, JS, Python, C++)
• Packages with no dependencies listed separately

What it produces

1. Per-package NOTICE file inside each scanned package directory (from generate-notice.js)
2. NOTICE_FULL_REPORT.txt license overview report (from generate-report.js, gitignored)
3. NOTICE_LOG.txt at the repo root with errors/warnings (gitignored)

Scan types

Package coverage

• Models (full list): sdk, inference, registry-server/client
• Models (by engine): All addon packages, mapped by engine name
• JS: Every package with dependencies in package.json
• Python: Packages with requirements.txt or pyproject.toml in benchmarks/scripts
• C++: Packages with vcpkg.json

Addon-to-engine mapping

asr-ggml carries two engine keys because the whisper + parakeet packages were unified: models.prod.json still names the retired @qvac/transcription-whispercpp engine until the SDK/registry repoint lands.

Sorting guarantee

All entries within every NOTICE file section are sorted deterministically using locale-independent collation. Re-runs on identical input always produce identical output, resulting in clean git diffs.

Related scripts

• Model license verification: npm run verify:licenses in packages/registry-server -- verifies model licenses in models.prod.json against HuggingFace/GitHub APIs (dry-run only, console output, fails on unverifiable).

References

• Constants (allowlist, normalization, copyright): .agents/skills/qv-notice-generate/scripts/constants.js
• Package definitions & internal wiring: .agents/skills/qv-notice-generate/scripts/lib/config.js
• SDK pod ownership: .github/teams/sdk.json