LGTM except for >+ (license (license:non-copyleft "file://readme.txt")))) That is an invalid URL. Should be: + (license (license:non-copyleft "file:///readme.txt")))) There are cases where you want to refer to files on a specific host (I've actually used file manager programs which support drag&drop across hosts--it's nice). See also https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8089 for possible forms. What is also valid by now is "file:readme.txt".