Adafruit is standardizing on adding author and license information to all code files. For Arduino, this would be all .ino, .h, and .cpp files. For CircuitPython, it would be all .py files.

The information goes at the top of each code file before any other comments or code.

Please put the current year and the author(s) first and last name in the first line. In the third line, generally Adafruit code is MIT licensed. If you code derives from code under CC or other licenses, please list them, although MIT is the preferred license.

The phrase "for Adafruit Industries" is for Adafruit authors and is not required for general authors.

Arduino

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// SPDX-FileCopyrightText: YYYY Your Name for Adafruit Industries
//
// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT

// SPDX-FileCopyrightText: YYYY Your Name for Adafruit Industries
//
// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT

An example:

// SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2021 Anne Barela for Adafruit Industries
//
// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT

First line of code or additional comments

// SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2022 Jane Doe
//
// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT

If there is more than one author, you can have multiple lines for SPDX-FileCopyrightText, one below the other each listing the date and author as appropriate:

// SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2017 Limor Fried/ladyada for Adafruit Industries
// SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2017 Phillip Burgess for Adafruit Industries
//
// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT

CircuitPython

CircuitPython uses the Python comment # instead of the C comment //. ALso the latest versions of the Lint/CI checker want a description delimited by three single quotes beginning and end:

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# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: YYYY Your Name for Adafruit Industries
#
# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
'''MyExample is a program to play MP3 sound files'''

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: YYYY Your Name for Adafruit Industries
#
# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
'''MyExample is a program to play MP3 sound files'''

An example:

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2021 Anne Barela for Adafruit Industries
#
# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT '''MyExample is a program to draw pictures'''

First line of code or additional comments

SPDX

Documenting information in this fashion is consistent with The Software Package Data Exchange® (SPDX®). SPDX is an open standard for communicating software bill of material information, including components, licenses, copyrights, and security references. SPDX reduces redundant work by providing a common format for companies and communities to share important data, thereby streamlining and improving compliance.

The SPDX specification is an international open standard ISO/IEC 5962:2021.

The list of valid license types are on the SPDX website here.

Please keep to the formats listed above unless instructed by Adafruit staff.

Troubleshooting

Be sure the comments are left justified and worded close to the example text including spaces.
Be sure you used the right comment mark for the language you are coding with.
Check that the license given is valid in the list here
If you are not writing for Adafruit, the phrase "for Adafruit Industries" is not required.