Add a top-level LICENSE file matching the README's MIT declaration

Author: LykhoydaCreated May 7, 2026Updated May 7, 2026

Context

The repository's README.md and the GitHub sidebar both declare the project as MIT-licensed, but there is no top-level LICENSE file in the repo:

  • https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vercel-labs/agent-skills/main/LICENSE404
  • The GitHub API returns licenseInfo: null for the repo despite the README's prose declaration
  • Auto-detected license badges work via README parsing, but compliance/audit tooling and downstream marketplaces typically look for the file, not prose

Why it matters for downstream

I'm vendoring three of your skills (react-best-practices, composition-patterns, react-native-skills) into the rn-dev-agent Claude Code plugin (MIT-licensed). To redistribute the vendored content cleanly, my plugin's sync script currently:

  • Fails by default if the upstream LICENSE is missing
  • Falls back to embedding the full MIT text in our LICENSE-VENDORED.md with a note about the absence
  • Requires an --accept-missing-license-file override flag

Adding a LICENSE file would let downstream consumers like ours treat the redistribution path as fully audit-clean without flag gymnastics, and would surface MIT in licenseInfo on the API.

Suggested fix

Add LICENSE at the repo root with the canonical MIT text using the project's preferred copyright holder format (likely "Copyright (c) Vercel, Inc. and contributors"). The Choose-A-License MIT template is a good starting point; GitHub's web UI also has a one-click "Add license" flow.

Happy to send a PR if helpful.

Verification

After the fix, curl -I https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vercel-labs/agent-skills/main/LICENSE should return 200, and gh repo view vercel-labs/agent-skills --json licenseInfo should populate the field.

Thanks for the great content!

Source: vercel-labs/agent-skills