dep-license

Show the license for a dependency bundled with Ritual.

Without a package name, opens an interactive list showing all bundled dependencies. Primary dependencies (direct entries in package.json) are listed first, followed by transitive dependencies. Type to search and filter across both sections.

Usage

./ritual dep-license [package] [options]

Arguments

Argument	Description
[package]	Name of the package to display the license for

Options

Option	Description	Default
--list	List every bundled dependency with its version and license	false
--plain	Output license text directly to stdout	false
--output <format>	Output format for --list: text, json, or ndjson	text

The listing (or a package’s license text) is the command’s entire output, so there is no --quiet (shared convention).

--list cannot be combined with a package name argument. It never prompts, so it also works outside a TTY — without either a package name or --list, an invocation that cannot open the picker is a usage error (exit 2). That covers a non-TTY stdout and every case where prompts are unavailable, including --no-input.

A license printed for a named package is paged the same way license is: less only when both ends are a terminal and prompts are available, plain stdout otherwise.

Examples

Open the interactive dependency picker:

./ritual dep-license

View a specific package license directly:

./ritual dep-license commander

View a scoped package license:

./ritual dep-license prompts

Print a license to stdout:

./ritual dep-license prompts --plain

List every dependency (primary first, then transitive) as name version license lines:

./ritual dep-license --list

Primary:
  commander 15.0.0 MIT
  prompts 2.4.2 MIT
Transitive:
  kleur 3.0.3 MIT

Scripted Output

--list --output json emits one { name, version, license, isPrimary } object per dependency (ndjson emits the same rows one object per line). The payload deliberately excludes the full license text — it is large; run ./ritual dep-license <package> to see a package’s complete license text.

./ritual dep-license --list --output json

[
  { "name": "commander", "version": "15.0.0", "license": "MIT", "isPrimary": true },
  { "name": "kleur", "version": "3.0.3", "license": "MIT", "isPrimary": false }
]

Exit Codes

Code	Meaning
0	Success
2	Usage error (no package name and no --list when prompts are unavailable or stdout is not a TTY, or both given)
3	Package not found