Use Cases on remixware.com

Checking AI-Written Code for Open Source It Reproduced

Mon, 26 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

AI coding assistants write a lot of code now, and most of it is new: glue between your own functions and small helpers built for the problem in front of them. Now and then, though, an assistant writes something it has seen many times before. A well-known function from a popular library comes out nearly word for word, sometimes with the names changed to fit your code.

That copy can carry the licence of the code it came from. If the original was MIT, you owe its authors a copyright line in your notices. If it was GPL, the copy may not belong in a closed product at all. The assistant doesn’t tell you which happened, and code review rarely catches it, because the code looks fine and does what it should.

Getting Ready for a Code Audit Before a Sale or a Big Customer

Mon, 26 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Sooner or later someone outside the team asks what’s in your code. A company that wants to buy yours runs a scan as part of due diligence, or a large customer’s procurement team sends a questionnaire about open source. Both are asking the same thing: is there code in here that the company doesn’t have the right to ship the way it ships it?

The worst time to find out is when their report lands. A GPL file in the core product turns into a price cut or a promise to rewrite it before closing. Running the same kind of check months earlier turns it into an ordinary task.

GPL 2 Firmware and the Apache Code That Cannot Go In

Mon, 26 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A lot of firmware is licensed under GPL version 2, because it’s built on Linux, BusyBox or U-Boot, and a lot of it says “version 2 only”. That choice shuts out more code than people expect. Apache 2.0 code can’t go in, even though Apache is permissive. GPL version 3 code can’t go in either, even though it’s the GPL. The same Apache code would be fine in an MIT product and the GPL-3.0 code in a GPL-3.0 one, so a function that’s harmless in one of your products can be a problem in another.

Stop GPL Code at the Pull Request: A Licence Check in CI

Mon, 26 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The cheapest moment to deal with copied code is before it merges. Once it ships, a GPL function in a closed product means a release to pull back and a rewrite under pressure. In a pull request it means a red build and a few lines to replace.

remixware check is made for that moment. It scans the project, applies your policy, prints what breaks it, and exits with status 1, so the build stops. When nothing breaks the policy it prints PASS and exits with 0. A check that couldn’t do its job exits with 2 instead of passing: a file it can’t read, or a folder with no source files to scan, which usually means a wrong path or an --exclude that covers everything.

Third-Party Notices Without the Spreadsheet

Mon, 26 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Most open source licences ask for one thing in return: keep the copyright line and the licence text with the code. For dependencies, package tools and app stores help with that. For code that was copied into your own files, nothing does, so the credit usually gets lost on the way and the notices file never hears about it.

Remixware finds those copies and writes the missing entries. The loop has three steps: check, write the notices, check again, with a stop in between when an entry needs something only you can find.

Wide Coverage With SCANOSS, Offline Checks With Remixware

Mon, 26 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Remixware compares your code with code you index, and an index only knows what you put in it. That’s enough for the libraries in your own stack, which is where most copies come from. But a function can come from anywhere, such as a project you never installed or an old gist.

For those, Remixware works with SCANOSS, which keeps a large knowledge base of public open source that you can check files against for free. SCANOSS finds the matches. Remixware applies your policy to them, sorts them into the same statuses as its own findings, writes the notices, and gives you one report and one pass or fail.