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Add license qualifier section to code search syntax #43285

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Add license qualifier section to code search syntax #43285

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11 changes: 11 additions & 0 deletions ...ent/search-github/github-code-search/understanding-github-code-search-syntax.md
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* [Organization and user qualifiers](#organization-and-user-qualifiers)
* [Enterprise qualifier](#enterprise-qualifier)
* [Language qualifier](#language-qualifier)
* [License qualifier](#license-qualifier)
* [Path qualifier](#path-qualifier)
* [Symbol qualifier](#symbol-qualifier)
* [Content qualifier](#content-qualifier)
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For a complete list of supported language names, see [languages.yaml](https://github.com/github-linguist/linguist/blob/main/lib/linguist/languages.yml) in [github-linguist/linguist](https://github.com/github-linguist/linguist). If your preferred language is not on the list, you can open a pull request to add it.

### License qualifier

You can filter repositories based on their license or license family using the `license` qualifier and the exact license keyword, e.g. `Apache-2.0`, `CC`, `MIT`.
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Copilot AI Mar 9, 2026

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For consistency with the other qualifier sections in this article (for example, language: and path:), consider referring to this as the license: qualifier (with the colon) in the descriptive sentence as well.

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You can filter repositories based on their license or license family using the `license` qualifier and the exact license keyword, e.g. `Apache-2.0`, `CC`, `MIT`.
You can filter repositories based on their license or license family using the `license:` qualifier and the exact license keyword, e.g. `Apache-2.0`, `CC`, `MIT`.

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```text
license:MIT
```

See [Licensing a Repository](https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/managing-your-repositorys-settings-and-features/customizing-your-repository/licensing-a-repository#searching-github-by-license-type) for a list of license keywords.

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docs-domain: Catch occurrences of docs.github.com domain.
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Copilot AI Mar 9, 2026

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This uses an absolute docs URL and hardcoded link text. For internal docs links, use a relative path and the [AUTOTITLE](/...) placeholder (including the #searching-github-by-license-type anchor) so titles stay in sync and links work across versions/environments.

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See [Licensing a Repository](https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/managing-your-repositorys-settings-and-features/customizing-your-repository/licensing-a-repository#searching-github-by-license-type) for a list of license keywords.
See [AUTOTITLE](/repositories/managing-your-repositorys-settings-and-features/customizing-your-repository/licensing-a-repository#searching-github-by-license-type) for a list of license keywords.

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### Path qualifier

To search within file paths, use the `path:` qualifier. This will match files containing the term anywhere in their file path. For example, to find files containing the term `unit_tests` in their path, use:
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