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Installation

This page covers every way to install and run the License Compliance Checker.

Prerequisites

Requirement Minimum Notes
Python 3.9+ Required for pip / source installs
Docker 20.10+ Required only for Docker method
Docker Compose 2.0+ Required only for Docker method
Git Any recent version Required for GitHub repository scanning

The Docker method gives you the full stack — API server, background workers, web dashboard, PostgreSQL, and Redis — with a single command.

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/aiexponent/license-compliance-checker.git
cd license-compliance-checker

# Start all services
docker-compose up -d

Once the containers are running, the services are available at:

Service URL
Dashboard http://localhost:3000
API http://localhost:8000
API Docs (Swagger) http://localhost:8000/docs

For production deployments, use the production compose file:

docker-compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml up -d --build

Configuration

Environment variables can be set in a .env file or directly in the compose file. See the Deployment Guide for production configuration details.

Method 2: pip Install

For CLI-only usage without the web dashboard or background services:

# Install from PyPI
pip install license-compliance-checker

Or install from a cloned repository:

git clone https://github.com/aiexponent/license-compliance-checker.git
cd license-compliance-checker
pip install -e .

Verify the installation:

lcc --version
lcc scan --help

Method 3: From Source (Development)

For contributors or anyone who wants to run the latest code:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/aiexponent/license-compliance-checker.git
cd license-compliance-checker

# Install with development dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Install dashboard dependencies
cd dashboard
npm install
cd ..

Run the services in separate terminals:

lcc server

lcc queue worker

cd dashboard
npm run dev

Environment Variables

Key configuration variables for all methods:

Variable Description Default
LCC_DATABASE_URL Database connection string sqlite:///lcc.db
LCC_REDIS_URL Redis connection for job queue redis://localhost:6379/0
LCC_CACHE_DIR Directory for caching license texts ~/.lcc/cache
LCC_LLM_PROVIDER AI provider for license analysis (disabled)
LCC_FIREWORKS_API_KEY API key for Fireworks AI (none)
GITHUB_TOKEN GitHub token for repository scanning (none)

AI-Powered Analysis

To enable LLM-based license analysis for ambiguous texts, configure the Fireworks AI integration:

export LCC_LLM_PROVIDER=fireworks
export LCC_FIREWORKS_API_KEY=your_api_key
export LCC_LLM_MODEL=accounts/fireworks/models/llama-v3p1-70b-instruct

Verifying Your Installation

After installation, run a quick check:

# Check version
lcc --version

# Show available commands
lcc --help

# Run a test scan on the LCC repository itself
lcc scan .

Next Steps