compliance/reuse@v1

Hygiene checks for repositories that follow the FSFE REUSE Specification (https://reuse.software/) — every licensable file declares its license + copyright via an SPDX header (or a .license companion / REUSE.toml entry), and the full license texts live under LICENSES/.

Adopt with:

extends:
  - alint://bundled/compliance/reuse@v1

This ruleset has no fact gate — extending it is the user's signal that they intend to be REUSE-compliant. If you need narrower coverage, override paths: on the SPDX-header rule (e.g. limit to one source tree) or level: off rules you don't want.

What it checks

3 rules. Each links to its section below, which explains the check and shows its definition.

Rule	Reports
reuse-licenses-dir-exists error	REUSE-compliant projects need a LICENSES/ directory containing the full text of each license referenced by SPDX-License-Identifier: headers (named e.g. LICENSES/Apache-2.0.txt).
reuse-source-has-spdx-identifier warning	REUSE: every source file should declare its license with an SPDX-License-Identifier: header in the first few lines (in a comment).
reuse-source-has-copyright-text warning	REUSE: every source file should declare its copyright with an SPDX-FileCopyrightText: <year> <holder> header alongside the SPDX-License-Identifier.

Rules

reuse-licenses-dir-exists

The REUSE spec mandates a top-level LICENSES/ directory containing the full text of every license used in the project (named by SPDX identifier, e.g. LICENSES/MIT.txt). reuse lint rejects a project without it, and so does this rule.

• kind: dir_exists
• level: error
• policy: https://reuse.software/spec/#license-files

REUSE-compliant projects need a LICENSES/ directory containing the full text of each license referenced by SPDX-License-Identifier: headers (named e.g. LICENSES/Apache-2.0.txt). Run reuse download --all to populate it from the SPDX corpus.

- id: reuse-licenses-dir-exists
  kind: dir_exists
  paths: "LICENSES"
  level: error
  message: >-
    REUSE-compliant projects need a `LICENSES/` directory
    containing the full text of each license referenced by
    `SPDX-License-Identifier:` headers (named e.g.
    `LICENSES/Apache-2.0.txt`). Run `reuse download --all`
    to populate it from the SPDX corpus.
  policy_url: "https://reuse.software/spec/#license-files"

reuse-source-has-spdx-identifier

Every common-source-extension file should carry an SPDX-License-Identifier header in its first ~10 lines. Files that license-via-companion (*.license) or via REUSE.toml mappings legitimately lack inline headers — narrow paths: to your source trees if your project uses those mechanisms heavily.

• kind: file_header
• level: warning
• policy: https://reuse.software/spec/#comment-headers

REUSE: every source file should declare its license with an SPDX-License-Identifier: header in the first few lines (in a comment). Use a .license companion file or a REUSE.toml mapping if the file format can't carry comments.

- id: reuse-source-has-spdx-identifier
  kind: file_header
  paths:
    include:
      ["**/*.{rs,py,js,jsx,ts,tsx,go,java,kt,c,cc,cpp,h,hpp,hh,sh,rb,swift}"]
    exclude:
      - "**/vendor/**"
      - "**/node_modules/**"
      - "**/target/**"
      - "**/build/**"
      - "**/dist/**"
      - "**/.cargo/**"
  lines: 10
  pattern: "SPDX-License-Identifier:"
  level: warning
  message: >-
    REUSE: every source file should declare its license
    with an `SPDX-License-Identifier:` header in the first
    few lines (in a comment). Use a `.license` companion
    file or a `REUSE.toml` mapping if the file format
    can't carry comments.
  policy_url: "https://reuse.software/spec/#comment-headers"

reuse-source-has-copyright-text

Every common-source-extension file should also carry a SPDX FileCopyrightText header naming the copyright holder. Required by the REUSE spec alongside SPDX-License-Identifier:.

• kind: file_header
• level: warning
• policy: https://reuse.software/spec/#format

REUSE: every source file should declare its copyright with an SPDX-FileCopyrightText: <year> <holder> header alongside the SPDX-License-Identifier.

- id: reuse-source-has-copyright-text
  kind: file_header
  paths:
    include:
      ["**/*.{rs,py,js,jsx,ts,tsx,go,java,kt,c,cc,cpp,h,hpp,hh,sh,rb,swift}"]
    exclude:
      - "**/vendor/**"
      - "**/node_modules/**"
      - "**/target/**"
      - "**/build/**"
      - "**/dist/**"
      - "**/.cargo/**"
  lines: 10
  pattern: "SPDX-FileCopyrightText:"
  level: warning
  message: >-
    REUSE: every source file should declare its copyright
    with an `SPDX-FileCopyrightText: <year> <holder>`
    header alongside the SPDX-License-Identifier.
  policy_url: "https://reuse.software/spec/#format"

Customize

Every rule here can be overridden by id from your own .alint.yml: change its level, or set level: off to drop it. An id that doesn't exist is an error at config load, so a typo can't silently pass.

extends:
  - alint://bundled/compliance/reuse@v1
rules:
  - id: reuse-licenses-dir-exists
    level: off
  - id: reuse-source-has-spdx-identifier
    level: error

To take only part of the ruleset, filter it where you extend it with only: or except::

extends:
  - url: alint://bundled/compliance/reuse@v1
    except: [reuse-licenses-dir-exists]

Bundled rulesets covers versioning and how rulesets combine.

Source

The full ruleset definition, comments included, is committed at crates/alint-dsl/rulesets/v1/compliance/reuse.yml in the alint repo.