R3BL Auto Insert Copyright

Automatically add copyright and license headers to your source code files. Save time and maintain consistency by automating the process of adding copyright notices to new and existing files.

Features

• Automatic Insertion: Copyright headers automatically added when you open new files
• Multiple License Types: Support for MIT, Apache 2.0, GPL 3.0, and custom licenses
• Manual Command: Add copyright headers to existing files on demand
• Configurable: Customize author name, license type, and additional notes
• Multi-Language Support: Works with 12+ programming languages
• New Files Only Mode: Optionally only add headers to brand new files
• Smart Detection: Automatically detects appropriate comment style for each language

Screenshots

MIT License copyright header automatically inserted at the top of a TypeScript file

Use the "Prepend Copyright" command to add headers to existing files

Requirements

• VS Code 1.60.0 or higher
• No external dependencies required

Usage

Automatic Mode (Default)

By default, copyright headers are automatically added when you create or open new files:

1. Create a new file (e.g., mycode.ts)
2. Start typing - the copyright header is automatically inserted at the top
3. Continue coding with the header already in place

Manual Command

Add a copyright header to an existing file:

1. Open the file you want to add a header to
2. Open Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P or Cmd+Shift+P)
3. Type "Prepend Copyright"
4. Select "Prepend Copyright" command
5. Header is inserted at the top of the file

Extension Settings

Configure the extension in your .vscode/settings.json:

{
    "copyrighter.author": "Your name or Organization",
    "copyrighter.license": "MIT"
}

Available Settings

copyrighter.author

Type: string Default: "Your Name" Description: The copyright holder name that appears in the header

"copyrighter.author": "Your name or Organization"

copyrighter.license

Type: string Default: "MIT" Options: "none", "MIT", "Apache2", "Apache2OneLine", "GPL3" Description: The license type to use for the copyright header

"copyrighter.license": "MIT"

copyrighter.note (Optional)

Type: string Default: "" Description: Additional note to include in the copyright header

"copyrighter.note": "All rights reserved."

copyrighter.newFilesOnly

Type: boolean Default: true Description: Only inject copyright in new files (not existing files when opened)

"copyrighter.newFilesOnly": true

Supported Languages

The extension automatically detects the appropriate comment syntax for these languages:

License Templates

MIT License

// Copyright (c) 2025 Your name or Organization. All rights reserved. Licensed under MIT License.

Apache 2.0 (One Line)

// Copyright (c) 2025 Your name or Organization. All rights reserved. Licensed under Apache License 2.0.

Apache 2.0 (Full)

// Copyright (c) 2025 Your name or Organization
//
// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
// You may obtain a copy of the License at
//
//     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
//
// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
// limitations under the License.

GPL 3.0

// Copyright (c) 2025 Your name or Organization
//
// This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
// it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
// the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
// (at your option) any later version.
//
// This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
// but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
// GNU General Public License for more details.

None (Custom)

// Copyright (c) 2025 Your name or Organization

Commands

• Prepend Copyright - Manually add a copyright header to the current file

Use Cases

Open Source Projects

Automatically add open source license headers (MIT, Apache, GPL) to all your project files to ensure proper licensing.

Commercial Software

Add proprietary copyright notices to protect your intellectual property.

Multi-Developer Teams

Ensure consistent copyright headers across all team members' contributions.

Compliance Requirements

Meet legal or organizational requirements for copyright notices in source code.

Configuration Examples

Personal Open Source Project

{
    "copyrighter.author": "John Doe",
    "copyrighter.license": "MIT",
    "copyrighter.newFilesOnly": true
}

Company Project

{
    "copyrighter.author": "Acme Corporation",
    "copyrighter.license": "Apache2",
    "copyrighter.note": "Internal use only",
    "copyrighter.newFilesOnly": false
}

Custom License

{
    "copyrighter.author": "Your Company",
    "copyrighter.license": "none",
    "copyrighter.note": "Proprietary and confidential"
}

How It Works

1. File Detection: When you open or create a file, the extension checks if it's a supported language
2. Header Check: Checks if a copyright header already exists
3. Automatic Insertion: If no header exists and it's a new file (or newFilesOnly is false), inserts the header
4. Comment Style: Automatically uses the correct comment syntax for the file type
5. Template Fill: Fills in the template with your configured author, year, license, and notes

Known Issues

• Only works with text-based source code files
• Header detection is based on simple pattern matching
• Year is automatically set to current year

Shared Infrastructure

This extension uses the R3BL Shared extension for centralized services across all R3BL extensions (message queuing, global configuration, and more).

See the R3BL Shared documentation for available services, API usage, and configuration options.

Release Notes

See CHANGELOG.md for detailed release notes and version history.

License

MIT

Contributing

Found a bug or want to add support for a new language? Please open an issue at: https://github.com/r3bl-org/r3bl-vscode-extensions/issues

Code with confidence, license with ease!