Transitive Dependency License Risk
TL;DR: Many license surprises come from transitive dependencies you never added directly. They can quietly introduce copyleft or restrictive licenses into your dependency graph.
Why transitive dependencies matter
- They can introduce copyleft or restrictive licenses you did not explicitly choose.
- They may change over time as upstream projects add or swap dependencies.
- They are easy to miss if you only scan the top-level dependency list.
How Inspectly surfaces transitive risk
When dependency trees are pasted into the Dependency License & Risk Inspector, lines that appear nested or indented are treated as transitive and may receive stronger heuristics for unknown or risky licenses.
Practical approaches
- Periodically review full dependency trees from your package managers.
- Pay attention to new transitive dependencies added by updates.
- Loop in legal or compliance when high‑risk licenses appear in transitive chains.
Inspect Transitive License Risk
Paste a full dependency tree into the Dependency License & Risk Inspector to see which transitive packages carry higher license risk.
This content is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice.