Which open-source licenses let you sell a skill?
MIT, Apache 2.0, GPL, AGPL and source-available licenses, explained for people who package and sell agent skills.
Updated Oct 22, 2026 · 5 min read
Permissive: MIT and Apache 2.0
You may use, change and sell work built on these projects. Keep the original copyright notice and license text with what you ship. Apache 2.0 also asks you to keep any NOTICE file and to say which files you changed.
Copyleft: GPL and AGPL
You may sell, but anything you distribute that includes the code must be released under the same license with its source. AGPL extends that to software people use over a network. In practice that rules them out for closed, paid skill packs.
Source-available and custom licenses
Some popular projects publish their code under their own terms. Read them before building on one. Some forbid redistribution, some require a paid license for companies, and some forbid derivative products.
What Lookbook does
- Paid skills build only on MIT, Apache 2.0 or CC0 projects.
- Every skill page names the project it builds on and its license.
- The original LICENSE and NOTICE files ship inside every download.
Read next
What are agent skills?
A plain-English guide to SKILL.md folders: what is inside one, how an agent decides to use it, and when a skill beats a long prompt.
HyperFrames vs Remotion for agent-made video
Two ways to turn code into video. How they differ, and why the license matters if you sell or share what you build on them.