Is openlibrary still maintained?

Yes, active. Last change today. Latest release deploy-2026-11-12-at-18-27, 2 days ago.

How widely used is openlibrary?

Widely used. 6.9k stars, 18 years old, by an organization. As with any download, get it from the official repo.

gitmanual

Reading the repo

Opening the box…

How to set up openlibrary (internetarchive/openlibrary) · gitmanual

Assembly instructions

internetarchive/openlibrary

One webpage for every book ever published!

Node.jsVitePython#books#hacktoberfest#internet-archive#library-catalogue

Before you start

Is it free?: YesOpen source (AGPL-3.0).
Still maintained?: Yes, activeLast change today. Latest release deploy-2026-11-12-at-18-27, 2 days ago.
How widely used?: Widely used6.9k stars, 18 years old, by an organization. As with any download, get it from the official repo.

Difficulty: Moderate
Time: 30 min or more
Stars: ★ 6,902
Activity: Updated this month

Fresh setup, read just now

Will it work on macOS?

Yes, it runs on macOS

You'll build it yourself with Node.js, Python.
It also needs PostgreSQL, Memcached running (Docker handles this).

Your system

macOS Windows Linux

Start here

Docs ↗docs.openlibrary.orgLinked from the README.Website ↗openlibrary.orgThe project's own site.

Heads-upIt also needs PostgreSQL and Memcached.

Setup script in the repo

The maintainers included scripts/install_nginx.sh. Run it from the cloned folder after reading it.

bash scripts/install_nginx.sh

Also: scripts/install_nodejs.sh

6 steps on macOS

Download setup.sh

Then run bash setup.sh. It stops at the first error and is safe to run again. Servers and tests aren't started; it lists them at the end. Read it first.

1
Clone the repository
Needs Git: xcode-select --install. The repo uses git submodules, so the clone fetches them too.
```
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/internetarchive/openlibrary.git
cd openlibrary
```

Install the required runtimes

Node.js ^24.0.0, Python >=3.14.5,<3.14.6

# needs nvm: brew install nvm (or https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm)
nvm install 24
brew install python@3.14

3
Start backing services
Needs: PostgreSQL, Memcached
```
brew install --cask docker  # Docker Desktop
docker compose -f compose.yaml up -d
```
If you see Cannot connect to the Docker daemon: start Docker Desktop (or the Docker service) first.

Install dependencies

npm ci
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

5
Run it
```
npm run serve
```
6
Run the tests
```
npm test
pytest
```

From the README: Getting Started

Please read the Contributing guide thoroughly before contributing. It covers community norms, contribution standards, and how to work respectfully with other contributors.

Then follow the Quick Start to set up your environment and make your first contribution.

For full developer documentation, see docs.openlibrary.org.

To volunteer in non-development roles, visit openlibrary.org/volunteer.

Did you get it running?

No reports for macOS yet.

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Parts list

1×Node.js ^24.0.0runtime
1×Python >=3.14.5,<3.14.6runtime
1×npm package manager
1×pip package manager
1×PostgreSQL service
1×Memcached service

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Good to know

Has AGENTS.md — instructions for coding agents. You can open Claude Code (or another agent) in the cloned folder and ask it to do the setup for you.
Nested projects: docker/mockservices/requirements.txt, scripts/gh_scripts/requirements.txt, scripts/monitoring/requirements.txt

Details

License: AGPL-3.0
Open issues: 1,032
Branch: master

package.json scripts (31)

watchnode scripts/vite/build.mjs --watch --mode development
watch-pollingFORCE_POLLING=true npm run watch
watch:jsnode scripts/vite/build.mjs --only js --watch --mode development
watch:cssnode scripts/vite/build.mjs --only css --watch --mode development
watch:lit-manifestnpx cem analyze --watch
watch:componentsnode scripts/vite/build.mjs --only components --watch --mode development
watch:lit-componentsecho 'warning: watch:lit-components is deprecated, use watch:components instead' && npm run watch:components
buildnode scripts/vite/build.mjs
build-assetsmake js && make css && make components && make icons
build-assets:cssmake css
build-assets:componentsmake components
build-assets:jsmake js
build-assets:iconsmake icons
build-assets:lit-componentsmake components
build-assets:lit-manifestnpx cem analyze
svg-minsvgo --config config/svgo.config.js --recursive --folder static/images
lintnpx concurrently --group npm:lint:js npm:lint:css
lint:jsoxlint && oxfmt --check "**/*.{js,mjs,cjs,ts,vue}" && npm run lint:vue
lint:vueeslint "**/*.vue"
lint:cssstylelint "static/**/*.css" "openlibrary/**/*.css" "openlibrary/**/*.js"
lint-fixnpm run lint-fix:js && npm run lint-fix:css
lint-fix:jsoxlint --fix && oxfmt "**/*.{js,mjs,cjs,ts,vue}" && eslint --fix "**/*.vue"
lint-fix:cssstylelint --fix "static/**/*.css" "openlibrary/**/*.css"
servenode openlibrary/components/dev/serve-component.js && cd openlibrary/components/dev && vite
testnpm run test:js

Files we read (15)

.github/workflows/auto_assign_reviewer.yml

.github/workflows/code_review_action.yml

.github/workflows/docs_gh_pages.yml

.github/workflows/issue_enrichment.yml

.github/workflows/javascript_tests.yml

.github/workflows/python_tests.yml

.gitmodules

CONTRIBUTING.md

Makefile

Readme.md

compose.yaml

package.json

pyproject.toml

requirements.txt

setup.py

2,390 files in the repo

Contact

internetarchive/openlibrary

Before you start

Your setup manual for openlibrary

What's inside

Handy for

Yes, it runs on macOS

Start here

6 steps on macOS

Clone the repository

Install the required runtimes

Start backing services

Install dependencies

Run it

Run the tests

From the README: Getting Started

Did you get it running?

Still stuck? Get a written guide