GPL-3.0 Launch: Getting Your Open Source Project Ready

Almost Ready: Shipping Your Project Like a Pro

The project was sitting there, half-organized and not quite ready for the world. Time to change that. Our developer faced the classic pre-launch checklist: clean up the code, document everything properly, sort out licensing, and push it all to a repository.

The first decision was about licensing. The original README mentioned MIT, but the requirement was clear—copyleft. This meant switching to GPL-3.0, the heavyweight champion of open-source copyleft licenses. GPL (General Public License) has an interesting history: born in 1989 by Richard Stallman, it’s designed to ensure that any modifications to the software remain free and open. Unlike permissive licenses like MIT or Apache, GPL requires that derivative works also be released under the same license. It’s a powerful tool for maintaining software freedom, though it does carry legal weight that some companies carefully avoid.

Next came documentation updates. The README needed author information—Pavel Anatolyevich Borisov—and a proper license section explaining the GPL-3.0 terms. This isn’t just bureaucracy; it’s a legal requirement and a courtesy to anyone who might use or contribute to the project. Well-documented projects attract better contributions and build community trust.

The cleanup phase was equally important. A .gitignore file was configured to exclude the usual suspects: local data directories, environment variables (those .env files that contain secrets), and something unusual—Vosk speech recognition models. These are large binary files that have no business in a repository. The developer also excluded docs/archive/, those internal development notes that tell the story of bugs fixed and decisions made, but aren’t part of the final product.

Then came the ceremonial moment: initializing a fresh Git repository with git init --initial-branch=main --object-format=sha1. The SHA-1 object format is the standard (though Git has been moving toward SHA-256 for future security improvements). The initial commit captured 94 files and over 29,000 lines of code—a respectable foundation for an AI-powered promotion bot built with Claude.

The push to GitLab was configured and ready, awaiting the moment when the server became accessible. The developer had done everything right: proper licensing, clean documentation, secure .gitignore rules, and a well-organized repository structure. When that push command finally executed, the project would be live—polished, professional, and ready for collaboration.

The real lesson here? Shipping isn’t about having perfect code; it’s about having respectable housekeeping. Other developers (and your future self) will thank you for every minute spent on documentation and cleanup before publishing.

😄 How can you tell an extroverted programmer? He looks at YOUR shoes when he’s talking.