anonymous_github

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

Self-hosting

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

• 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

docker-compose up -d

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.