diff --git a/src/titanium/modules/detect-ti-modules.ts b/src/titanium/modules/detect-ti-modules.ts
index 80001ae0..b36f4528 100644
--- a/src/titanium/modules/detect-ti-modules.ts
+++ b/src/titanium/modules/detect-ti-modules.ts
@@ -8,6 +8,29 @@ import { snooplogg } from 'snooplogg';
 
 const { log, warn } = snooplogg('ti:modules');
 
+/**
+ * The `license` values the module scaffolding writes, which mean the author
+ * never filled one in.
+ *
+ * The SDK's module templates seed `Specify your license`, and nothing prompts
+ * anyone to replace it. Three modules under tidev have shipped releases with it
+ * still in place — `titanium-identity`, `titanium-onboarding` and
+ * `ti.previewinteraction` — and it reaches anywhere the manifest is surfaced.
+ */
+const PLACEHOLDER_LICENSES = new Set(['specify your license', 'your license here']);
+
+/**
+ * Whether a manifest's `license` is one of the template defaults, meaning no
+ * licence was ever chosen.
+ *
+ * Exported so a packaging or release step can reject what this only warns about:
+ * failing an app build because a *dependency's* metadata is unfilled would
+ * punish the wrong person.
+ */
+export function isPlaceholderLicense(license: string | undefined): boolean {
+	return license !== undefined && PLACEHOLDER_LICENSES.has(license.trim().toLowerCase());
+}
+
 /**
  * Detects Titanium modules in the Titanium SDK install locations and user search paths, then
  * returns a registry of found modules.
@@ -334,6 +357,13 @@ async function readManifest(manifestFile: string) {
 		throw new Error(`Module manifest has invalid version: ${manifest.version}`);
 	}
 
+	if (isPlaceholderLicense(manifest.license)) {
+		warn(
+			`Module ${manifest.moduleid} has not set a license (${manifestFile}): ` +
+				`choose an SPDX license such as "Apache-2.0".`
+		);
+	}
+
 	const platform = platformAliases[manifest.platform] || manifest.platform;
 
 	return {
diff --git a/test/titanium/modules/placeholder-license.test.ts b/test/titanium/modules/placeholder-license.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..7220b79a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/titanium/modules/placeholder-license.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+import { isPlaceholderLicense } from '../../../src/titanium/index.js';
+import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest';
+
+describe('isPlaceholderLicense()', () => {
+	it('recognises the scaffolding default', () => {
+		expect(isPlaceholderLicense('Specify your license')).toBe(true);
+	});
+
+	it('ignores case and surrounding whitespace', () => {
+		// The templates emit it with a trailing newline, and manifests are
+		// hand-edited, so neither is a reliable shape.
+		expect(isPlaceholderLicense('  specify your LICENSE  ')).toBe(true);
+	});
+
+	it('accepts a real licence', () => {
+		for (const license of ['Apache-2.0', 'MIT', 'Apache Public License v2', 'Proprietary']) {
+			expect(isPlaceholderLicense(license)).toBe(false);
+		}
+	});
+
+	it('treats a missing licence as not a placeholder', () => {
+		// Absent is a different problem from unfilled, and is not this check's.
+		expect(isPlaceholderLicense(undefined)).toBe(false);
+		expect(isPlaceholderLicense('')).toBe(false);
+	});
+});