> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.safetycli.com/safety-2/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.safetycli.com/safety-2/safety-2.x-basics/license-scanning.md).

# License Scanning

### Common Commands

To display the licenses in use, run the followng command instead of the usual "safety check" command used to perform vulnerability scans.

```
// safety license
```

 You can run the following command to get **help** and a full list of available options. 

```
// safety license --help
```

License checks require an API key, which you can include either using the "--key" argument or by setting an environment variable using the following command:

```
// SAFETY_API_KEY (export SAFETY_API_KEY=YOUR_KEY_HERE)
```

Running `safety license` will scan the current Python environment for all installed dependencies and report on their licenses.

Running `safety license -r requirements.txt` will report on the packages in the named requirements file.

### Output Options

The default output option is to the screen. 

If you wish to ingest or analyze the resulting license report data you can generate a JSON file from the report by adding the `--output json` argument, as in the example below:

```
// safety license -r requirements.txt --output json
```

Another output option is `--output bare` which will print the unique set of licenses that were present in the packages that were analyzed, as in the example below:

```
// safety license -r requirements.txt --output bare
```

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