Is openlibrary still maintained?

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

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.

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Reading the repo

Opening the box…

How to install openlibrary on Linux (internetarchive/openlibrary) · gitmanual

How to install on Linux

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, yesterday.
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: ★ 6,871
Activity: Updated this month

Fresh setup, read just now

Will it work on Linux?

Yes, it runs on Linux

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 Linux

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.

Clone the repository

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: https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm
nvm install 24
sudo apt install python3 python3.14 python3-venv  # Debian/Ubuntu

3
Start backing services
Needs: PostgreSQL, Memcached
```
# needs Docker Engine: https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/
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 Linux yet.

Still stuck? Get a written guide

GitManual AI Agent reads the 15 key files and writes a step-by-step guide for Linux. Once written, it's saved for everyone.

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: 1,030
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

2,388 files in the repo

Contact

internetarchive/openlibrary

Before you start

Your setup manual for openlibrary

What's inside

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