Chromium

Chromium is an open-source browser project that aims to build a safer, faster, and more stable way for all users to experience the web.

The project's web site is https://www.chromium.org.

To check out the source code locally, don't use git clone! Instead, follow the instructions on how to get the code.

Documentation in the source is rooted in docs/README.md.

Learn how to Get Around the Chromium Source Code Directory Structure.

For historical reasons, there are some small top level directories. Now the guidance is that new top level directories are for product (e.g. Chrome, Android WebView, Ash). Even if these products have multiple executables, the code should be in subdirectories of the product.

If you found a bug, please file it at https://crbug.com/new.

Licenses and upstream build compatibility

The root LICENSE contains the full consolidated license texts and attributions, indexed by their original repository paths. Copyright notices embedded in source files remain in place. This consolidation does not change the licenses or other obligations applying to inherited material.

Repeated terms are stored once as shared text blocks inside that same file. Each component document retains its notices and references the shared terms that form part of it. Different wording and exceptions remain distinct; formatting differences are recorded so the original documents can be restored exactly. No legal text is fetched externally or stored in a separate archive.

After updating document records, python tools/licenses/license_bundle.py --compact rebuilds the shared text blocks and verifies lossless restoration before replacing the root file. Compaction preserves original wording; it does not infer licensing equivalence from license names.

Verify the bundle with python tools/licenses/license_bundle.py --verify. Before running legacy Chromium builds, package tools, or tests that require the original legal-document paths, run:

python tools/licenses/license_bundle.py --materialize

These are generated local copies, not additional authoritative license files. Remove them afterward with python tools/licenses/license_bundle.py --clean-materialized. Both commands refuse to overwrite or delete differing local files. The root bundle is never overwritten. Chromium's license generator reads the bundled records directly.

Include the complete root bundle with standalone source and binary releases. When adding dependencies or restructuring components, update the bundle's texts and provenance mappings to keep their applicable terms identifiable.