diff --git a/source/docs/publish/action.md b/source/docs/publish/action.md
index e95fad06..22c78805 100644
--- a/source/docs/publish/action.md
+++ b/source/docs/publish/action.md
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ All these checks can be disabled with `with.ignore`. Use a string, and if you ig
 | `images`      | [More info](/docs/publish/include.md#check-images)        | Checks that the info file has images             |
 | `information` | [More info](/docs/publish/include.md#check-repository)    | Checks that the repo has an information file     |
 | `issues`      | [More info](/docs/publish/include.md#check-repository)    | Checks that issues are enabled                   |
+| `license`     | [More info](/docs/publish/include.md#check-license)       | Checks that the repository has a recognized open source license |
 | `topics`      | [More info](/docs/publish/include.md#check-repository)    | Checks that the repository has topics            |
 
 ## Using a specific version
diff --git a/source/docs/publish/include.md b/source/docs/publish/include.md
index 0072fb5b..4002e603 100644
--- a/source/docs/publish/include.md
+++ b/source/docs/publish/include.md
@@ -97,6 +97,12 @@ Checks general repository requirements:
 - The repository has issues enabled
 - The repository has topics defined
 
+### Check license
+
+Checks that the repository declares a recognized open source license that GitHub can detect.
+
+GitHub detects the license from a `LICENSE` file at the repository root that matches a recognized SPDX template. Repositories with no license, or where GitHub classifies the license as `other`, will fail this check.
+
 ### lint jq
 
 Ensures that the files in your PR are valid JSON.