MBARI Source Code Repository and Licensing Guidelines

This site details out the guidelines for MBARI's software repositories and licensing.

Software Repositories

MBARI is consolidating it's software repositories to GitHub.

1. GitHub Organization and Responsibilities
   1. Org Owner Checklist
2. Information on Our Non Profit Status
3. GitHub Recommendations
4. Architecture
5. GitHub Organization Level README Template

Repository Stats as of January 15, 2026: CSV,JSON,Excel

Licensing

1. MBARI Software Licensing Guide
2. Decision Tree
3. License Implementation Guide

License Research

Resources

1. Software License in Plain English
2. List of Licenses
3. Online Course
4. Fossology

Templates

License Templates

• LICENSE-Apache-2.0 - Apache License 2.0 template (recommended default)
• LICENSE-MIT - MIT License template (for simple utilities)
• LICENSE-BSD-3-Clause - BSD 3-Clause License template

GitHub Templates

• README-template.md - Project README template with license section
• CONTRIBUTING.md - Contributing guidelines template
• ORGANIZATION-PROFILE-README.md - GitHub organization profile page

Tools

• init-license.sh - Interactive script to set up licensing for a new repository. Download to a Git repo you are working on locally and make it executable. Then run it.