diff --git a/1-formats/templates/STATE.a2ml.template b/1-formats/templates/STATE.a2ml.template
index 6c70068b5..6f69dfca9 100644
--- a/1-formats/templates/STATE.a2ml.template
+++ b/1-formats/templates/STATE.a2ml.template
@@ -43,7 +43,10 @@ name = "{{PROJECT_NAME}}"
 #   playground     — learning/sandbox, no stability promises
 tier = "{{TIER}}"
 
-# license: SPDX identifier. Almost always PMPL-1.0-or-later.
+# license: SPDX identifier. Per-category default: MPL-2.0 (code) /
+#   CC-BY-SA-4.0 (docs). PMPL-1.0-or-later is reserved for the three
+#   palimpsest-family repos (palimpsest-license, palimpsest-plasma,
+#   consent-aware-web) — do NOT mint it elsewhere (standards#645).
 license = "MPL-2.0"
 
 # language: Primary programming language used.