Share your code and data for double-anonymous peer review — without giving your identity away.
Public instance · How it works · Self-hosting
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.
- 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
Just open anonymous.4open.science, paste your repository URL, add the terms to hide, and share the generated link.
Anonymize a repository locally and produce an anonymized zip:
npm install -g @tdurieux/anonymous_github
anonymous_githubLocal 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.
Run your own instance with Docker
1. Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/tdurieux/anonymous_github/
cd anonymous_github
npm i2. 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/authGITHUB_TOKEN— create one at https://github.com/settings/tokens/new with thereposcope.CREDENTIAL_KEYS/CREDENTIAL_ACTIVE_KEY_ID— generate a key withopenssl 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(matchingAUTH_CALLBACK).
To enable read-only access to selected private repositories alongside OAuth, follow the GitHub App setup guide.
3. Start the server
docker-compose up -d4. 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.
Set RESEND_API_KEY and EMAIL_FROM on the web server and download workers to
send access alerts through Resend.
Use a sender address on a domain verified in Resend. APP_HOSTNAME sets the
host used for the connections link in emails.
Registration saves a verified GitHub email address, preferring the primary address.
OAuth requests user:email; GitHub App sign-in uses the read-only email permission
described in the setup guide. Later sign-ins also fill missing addresses. Saved
addresses and custom alert addresses are preserved. GitHub privacy placeholder
addresses are not imported.
Signed-in owners without an email address see an email form in a popup. “Remind me later” dismisses it for the current login session; “Never” saves a permanent preference on the account. Existing addresses are reused, and owners can add or change their address on the connections page at any time. Alerts cover invalid GitHub credentials and repository access errors encountered while reading or refreshing content. No periodic access scan is performed. Emails contain no repository names, anonymous URLs, or credentials.
An atomic database claim allows one email attempt per repository, pull request, or gist until its owner explicitly refreshes it, saves its settings or connection, or reconnects GitHub. Claiming ownership also clears the previous owner's alert. Reconnecting GitHub or completing a verified App installation update resets alerts for that owner's resources. Resets invalidate pending claims from older failures. Viewing content, scheduled updates, and automatic token renewal never reset alerts. There is no daily reminder. Claims also remain after delivery failures or an interrupted process, avoiding duplicate messages until the owner acts. Leaving either Resend setting empty disables delivery and the email prompt.
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).
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.
- gitmask — contribute anonymously to a GitHub repository.
- blind-reviews — browser add-on that hides identifying information when reviewing a pull request.
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.