---
layout: post
title: Tracking On Licensing For The Solutions In My OpenAPI Toolbox
image: http://kinlane-productions2.s3.amazonaws.com/api_evangelist_site/blog/screen_shot_2017_03_12_at_11.20.06_pm.png
atomdate: 2017-03-15 23:30:00+00:00
tags:
- Tracking
- OpenAPI
- Licensing
- Open
- Solutions
- Toolbox
---
I wanted to provide an easy way to publish and share some of the tools that I'm tracking on in the [OpenAPI](http://openapis.org) ecosystem, so I launched [my API toolbox](http://openapi.toolbox.apievangelist.com/). In addition to tracking on the name, description, logo, and URL for OpenAPI tooling, I also wanted to categorize them, helping me better understand the different types of tools that are emerging. As I do with all my research, [I published the OpenAPI Toolbox as a Github repository](https://github.com/kinlane/openapi-toolbox), leveraging [its YAML data core to store all the tools](https://github.com/kinlane/openapi-toolbox/blob/master/_data/tools.yaml). 

It will be a never ending project for me to add, update, and archive abandoned projects, but before I got too far down the road I wanted to also begin tracking on the license for each of the tools. I'm still deciding whether or not I want the toolbox to exclusively contain openly licensed tools, or look to provide a more comprehensive directory of tooling that includes unknown and proprietary solutions. I think for now I will just flag any tool I cannot find a license for, and follow up with the owner--it gives me a good excuse to reach out and see if there is anyone home.

Eventually, I want to also provide a search for the toolbox that allows users to search for tools and filter by license. Most of the tools have been Apache 2.0 or MIT license, details that I will continue to keep tracking and reporting on. If you know of any tooling that employs the OpenAPI Specification that should be included feel free to [submit a Github issue for the project](https://github.com/kinlane/openapi-toolbox/issues), or submit a pull request on the repository and add it [to the YAML data file that drives that OpenAPI Toolbox](https://github.com/kinlane/openapi-toolbox/blob/master/_data/tools.yaml).