Git & PortalJS
Build modern data portals with Git as your backend. Version-controlled, collaborative, and completely decentralized.
Read the docsView ExampleWHY GIT & PortalJS?
Git is the world's most trusted version control system, used by millions of developers worldwide.
PortalJS complements Git by providing a lightweight, customizable frontend layer.
Version Control for Data
Track changes, collaborate with pull requests, and maintain complete history of your datasets.
Zero Infrastructure
No databases, no servers. Use GitHub, GitLab, or any Git platform as your data backend.
Community Collaboration
Enable contributors to propose datasets, improvements, and corrections through standard Git workflows.
Distributed & Resilient
Data lives in multiple places by design. No single point of failure or vendor lock-in.
Key Features
Pre-built for Git & Open Data—static-first rendering and serverless scaling.
Integration with Multiple Git Platforms
Connect to GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, and self-hosted Git solutions. Choose your preferred platform.
Automatic Data Discovery
Automatically detects datasets in repositories based on configurable patterns and metadata files.
Flexible Metadata Support
Support for YAML, JSON, and Markdown metadata. Compatible with Frictionless Data Package standards.
Version Control & Collaboration
Use pull requests for dataset review, issues for discussions, and Git history for complete change tracking.
Access Control & Security
Leverage Git platform permissions. Support for both public and private repositories with authentication.
Real-time Updates
Portal updates automatically when repositories change. Webhook support for instant synchronization.
Handling Large Data Files with Git LFS
Git LFS + cloud storage makes Git perfect for datasets of any size.
Traditional Git
Git slows down as data grows
Git LFS + Cloud Storage
Perfect for datasets of any size
File Size Limitations
The challenge everyone talks about
Unlimited Scale
Git LFS + Cloud Storage
Introducing Giftless: Our Open-Source Git LFS Server
Giftless is our flexible, pluggable Git LFS server that seamlessly integrates with popular cloud storage providers. Deploy your own LFS infrastructure or use our hosted solution.
Pluggable Architecture
Easily extend with custom storage backends, transfer methods, and authentication mechanisms.
High Performance
Direct-to-cloud transfers and multipart uploads for optimal performance with large datasets.
Self-Hosted or Cloud
Deploy on your infrastructure or use our managed service. MIT licensed and fully open source.
Live Examples
Real-world data portals built with PortalJS and Git as the backend.
OpenSpending.org
Global platform for fiscal transparency with government spending data from multiple countries.
FiveThirtyEight Data
Replica of FiveThirtyEight's data portal showcasing journalism datasets with full GitHub integration.
Hate Speech Research
Alan Turing Institute's curated catalog of hate speech datasets for academic research.
Want to build your own? Start with our GitHub-backed catalog example
Common Use Cases
Tailored solutions built with Git & PortalJS to meet diverse collaborative data publishing needs.
Open Government Data
Publish government datasets with full transparency, version control, and community collaboration. Enable citizens to contribute corrections and improvements through Git workflows.
Academic Research
Create collaborative research data repositories where scholars can contribute datasets, peer review data quality, and maintain citation standards with Git-based workflows.
Data Journalism
Share datasets used in articles with full provenance and methodology. Enable other journalists to build upon your work with complete transparency and version history.