[opensourcedex]

aleph is a free, open source databases project written in JavaScript and released under MIT. It has 2,432 GitHub stars, 362 forks and 371 open issues, and was last pushed 7 months ago. On this registry it ranks #68 of 81 tracked projects in Databases, with 5 head-to-head comparisons available. It gained 2 stars over the last 3 tracked days.

What is aleph?

What it is

Aleph is an MIT-licensed open-source search and browsing tool for large collections of documents and structured data. It indexes PDF, Word, HTML, CSV, XLS, and SQL inputs so users can search mixed evidence sources in one tool. The project lives in the open-source data-search, graph-database, investigative-journalism, and OSINT ecosystem, and it is built with investigative reporting as a primary use case.

The concrete problem it solves is finding connections across scattered documents and datasets. Investigators often have separate files, spreadsheets, and public datasets that mention people, companies, and other entities. Aleph indexes those materials and cross-references mentions of well-known entities against watchlists, including prior research or public datasets, so users can find relevant entities without manually comparing each source.

Key capabilities

  • Indexes large amounts of documents, including PDF, Word, and HTML files, for browsing and search.
  • Indexes structured data, including CSV, XLS, and SQL data, alongside document sources.
  • Supports search and browsing across indexed document and data collections.
  • Cross-references mentions of people, companies, and other well-known entities against watchlists.
  • Supports investigative reporting and OSINT workflows through entity search.
  • Supports data import management for documents and structured sources.

Who uses it and how

  • Investigative journalists use it to search documents and structured data for people and companies.
  • OSINT researchers use it to browse mixed document and dataset collections.
  • Organizations and individuals use it for entity search and watchlist matching.
  • Data teams import CSV, XLS, and SQL records for cross-referencing against known entities.
  • Developers use the documentation, releases, and contribution files to deploy or extend the software.

Getting started

Typical deployment starts from the project documentation and installation guide at docs.aleph.occrp.org. For stable use, select a release or the main branch rather than the default develop branch.

When to use it — and when not to

Use Aleph when an open-source investigative search platform is needed and the current maintenance timeline is acceptable. Avoid it for new long-term deployments because maintenance of this version ends after December 31, 2025, and the core team has shifted to Aleph Pro. Self-hosters must follow the installation documentation and manage releases themselves; required database, storage, or SMTP services are not listed, and the repository has 371 open issues.

project readme (upstream, from github) — read inline

.. epigraph::

Truth cannot penetrate a closed mind. If all places in the universe are in the Aleph, then all stars, all lamps, all sources of light are in it, too.

-- The Aleph _, Jorge Luis Borges

:warning: PROJECT STATUS: SUNSETTING :warning: Our involvement with this open-source project is being sunsetted. Maintenance of this version will officially end after December 2025.

Why?

This decision marks a significant strategic shift for us. Over the past year, our team has completely rewritten the Aleph codebase from scratch to launch Aleph Pro. As we transition to this new supported platform, we are focusing our resources entirely on Aleph Pro to ensure we can keep the lights on for investigations around the world.

For further details on this decision and what it means for the future, please read our official FAQs __ .

Timeline & Support

  • We will continue to provide maintenance for this repository until December 31st, 2025. After this date, no further updates, bug fixes, or support will be provided by the core team.
  • For any questions regarding the transition or the legacy software, please reach out via our Discourse community __.
  • For those currently hosting their own Aleph instances, we will be in touch with you very soon regarding the transition.
  • Organizations and individuals looking to collaborate can reach out to [email protected].

Thank you! We are incredibly proud of what we’ve built so far. Thank you to all the contributors and community members who helped build this project and believed in our mission.

About the software

Aleph is a tool for indexing large amounts of both documents (PDF, Word, HTML) and structured (CSV, XLS, SQL) data for easy browsing and search. It is built with investigative reporting as a primary use case. Aleph allows cross-referencing mentions of well-known entities (such as people and companies) against watchlists, e.g. from prior research or public datasets.

For further details on the software, how to use it, install it or manage data imports, please check the documentation at:

Support

Aleph is used and developed by multiple organisations and interested individuals. If you're interested in participating in this process, please read the support policy (SUPPORT.md), the contribution rules (CONTRIBUTING.md), and the code of conduct (CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md) and then get in touch:

Aleph Development

If you're looking to get involved with the development of Aleph, please check the CONTRIBUTING.md file for details on how to get started.

⚠️ IMPORTANT ⚠️ The default branch in this GitHub repository is "develop". The develop branch contains unreleased, unstable code. For stable releases, please check out the list of releases _ or switch to the main branch _.

Release process

If you are interested in, or have been tasked with releasing a new version of Aleph. The following steps should be followed:

Overview

The basic process for releasing Aleph is this:

  1. Check internal libraries for updates and merge. Release our libraries in the following order
  2. servicelayer
  3. followthemoney
  4. ingest-file
  5. react-ftm
  6. Ensure that all libraries for a release are up to date in aleph and merged to the develop branch.
  7. Ensure that any features, bugfixes are merged into develop and that all builds are passing
  8. Ensure that the CHANGELOG.md file is up to date on the develop branch. Add information as required.
  9. Create a RC release of Aleph.
  10. Test and verify the RC. Perform further RC releases as required.
  11. Merge all changes to main
  12. Create a final version of Aleph

As far as possible apply the rules of semantic versioning when determining the type of release to perform.

Technical process

RC releases

If you need to perform an RC release of Aleph, follow these steps:

  1. Ensure that the `CHANGELOG`` is up to date on the develop branch and that all outstanding PR's have been merged
  2. From the develop branch run bump2version (major, minor, patch) this will create a x.x.x-rc1 version of aleph
  3. push the tags to the remote with git push --tags
  4. push the version bump with git push
  5. If there are problems with the RC you can fix them and use bump2version build to generate new rc release

Major, minor, patch releases

  1. switch to main and pull from remote
  2. If not already done merge develop into main
  3. Update translations using make translate
  4. If you get npm errors, go into the ui folder and run npm install
  5. commit translations to main and push to remote
  6. run bump2version --verbose --sign-tags release. Note that bump2version won't show changes when you make the change, but it will work (see git log to check)
  7. push the tags to the remote with git push --tags
  8. push version bump to remote with git push
  9. merge main back into develop. Slightly unrelated to the release process but this is a good time to do it so that the new version numbers appear in develop as well

Frequently asked questions

Is aleph free to use?

aleph is open source under the MIT licence. There is no licence fee and no seat count — you can self-host it or, where the project offers one, pay a vendor for a managed version instead.

What does aleph do?

Search and browse documents and data; find the people and companies you look for.

What is aleph written in?

aleph is primarily written in JavaScript. Its source is publicly available at https://github.com/alephdata/aleph, and it has 2,432 GitHub stars.