anonymous_github/README.md

Anonymous GitHub

Share your code and data for double-anonymous peer review — without giving your identity away.

Public instance · How it works · Self-hosting

Why

Double-anonymous review asks you to anonymize the artifact behind your paper — the code and data — exactly like the paper itself. Doing that by hand (owner, organization, repository name, logins, and every mention buried in the files) is tedious and easy to get wrong. Anonymous GitHub does it for you and serves the result behind a shareable link.

A free public instance is available at anonymous.4open.science.

What it anonymizes

• The GitHub owner, organization, and repository name
• File and directory names
• File contents of every extension (Markdown, text, source code, …), replacing a configurable list of terms

Usage

Public instance

Just open anonymous.4open.science, paste your repository URL, add the terms to hide, and share the generated link.

CLI

Anonymize a repository locally and produce an anonymized zip:

npm install -g @tdurieux/anonymous_github
anonymous_github

LLM and automation clients

Use expiring, repository-scoped maintenance tokens to inspect saved status, edit anonymization settings, refresh snapshots, and extend expiration. A signed-in owner or coauthor can issue and revoke tokens through /api/user/maintenance-tokens. See the client guide and OpenAPI description, also served at /llms.txt and /maintenance-openapi.json on each instance. These tokens cannot access GitHub previews, file downloads, or admin routes.

Self-hosting

Docker now runs the Go backend, including streaming and background workers. See the Go deployment and cutover guide before upgrading an existing installation. It covers queue handoff, storage permissions, staging checks and the preserved Node rollback stack. A full production staging rehearsal is still required before cutover.

The following Node instructions also support the CLI, asset build and rollback backend.

Local installation requires Node.js 22.15 or newer in the 22.x series, 24.x, or 26 or newer. Run npm ci and npm run build to install and build. npm run dev uses Node's watch mode; npm run build:ui rebuilds browser assets.

For the November 2026 dependency update, install from the committed lockfile with npm ci, rebuild with npm run build, and restart the API and streamer services together. Docker installations should rebuild the application image. The Node dependency update alone does not change MongoDB documents, Redis keys, or queue formats. Switching to Go requires the separate cutover procedure linked above. Existing credential migration requirements still apply when upgrading from an older release.

The glob and minimatch overrides select security fixes unavailable through the dependency ranges of archive and development tools. Keep them until those packages accept patched versions. CI checks the full dependency audit and runs MongoDB migration, Redis session, and archive compatibility tests on Node 22 and 24. To run the database tests locally, point TEST_MONGODB_URI and PERFORMANCE_MONGO_URI at disposable MongoDB databases and set PERFORMANCE_REDIS_PORT to a disposable Redis instance. The performance database name must begin with perf_test_; these tests delete their test data.

Run your own instance with Docker

1. Clone and install

git clone https://github.com/tdurieux/anonymous_github/
cd anonymous_github
npm i

2. Configure GitHub access — create a .env file:

GITHUB_TOKEN=<GITHUB_TOKEN>
CLIENT_ID=<CLIENT_ID>
CLIENT_SECRET=<CLIENT_SECRET>
CREDENTIAL_KEYS='{"2026-09":"<base64-encoded 32-byte random key>"}'
CREDENTIAL_ACTIVE_KEY_ID=2026-09
CREDENTIAL_LEGACY_READS=false
PORT=5000
DB_USERNAME=
DB_PASSWORD=
AUTH_CALLBACK=http://localhost:5000/github/auth
SESSION_SECRET=<random-session-secret>
COOKIE_SECURE=false

• GITHUB_TOKEN — create one at https://github.com/settings/tokens/new with the repo scope.
• CREDENTIAL_KEYS / CREDENTIAL_ACTIVE_KEY_ID — generate a key with openssl rand -base64 32. Existing installations must follow the credential migration guide before starting this release.
• CLIENT_ID / CLIENT_SECRET — from an OAuth App at https://github.com/settings/applications/new.
• The App's callback must be https://<host>/github/auth (matching AUTH_CALLBACK).

To enable read-only access to selected private repositories alongside OAuth, follow the GitHub App setup guide.

3. Start the server

install -d -m 0750 -o 10001 -g 10001 repositories
docker compose up -d --build

The storage command requires permission to set ownership. For an existing storage directory, apply your ownership or ACL policy without replacing its contents. Use COOKIE_SECURE=true with HTTPS in production.

4. Open http://localhost:5000. The port can be changed in docker-compose.yml; putting Anonymous GitHub behind nginx is recommended for HTTPS.

For an optional remote, hidden, delayed MongoDB replica and backup source, see the MongoDB replication guide.

Scope of anonymization

In double-anonymous review, the boundary of anonymization is the paper plus its online appendix — and only that. Googling part of the paper or appendix to reveal authorship is considered a deliberate attempt to break anonymity (explanation).

How it works

Anonymous GitHub either downloads the full repository and anonymizes each file, or proxies requests to GitHub on the fly. In both cases the original and anonymized versions are cached on the server, so even large repositories stay responsive.

Related tools

• gitmask — contribute anonymously to a GitHub repository.
• blind-reviews — browser add-on that hides identifying information when reviewing a pull request.

See also

• Open science and double-anonymous peer review
• ACM policy on double-blind reviewing

License

GPL-3.0 © Thomas Durieux

Frontend development

The UI uses Vue 3 and Vue Router with the existing Express API. Page setup functions live in public/script/app.js and admin.js; the Vue templates are in public/partials/. Gulp compiles the templates and bundles the app with esbuild, then updates the asset manifest used by Express.

Run npm run build:ui after changing a template or frontend script. Use npm run dev:ui to serve the built UI locally with API requests proxied to the configured upstream. npm run test:ui rebuilds the assets and runs the frontend regression and DOM interaction tests. npm run build also builds the UI for production.

The initial bundle contains the Vue app. Markdown extensions load on content routes; PDF.js, Ace, and notebook support load when their viewers mount. Org support loads in the repository explorer, and Mermaid loads only when a diagram is encountered. These libraries use hashed URLs and load once per tab.

The Docker build compiles the same bundles and copies them, the asset manifest, and document-worker assets into the runtime image. The Compose app serves these assets directly; no frontend development server is needed.