Chive

Decentralized eprints on ATProto

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What is Chive?

Chive is a scholarly eprint platform where researchers own their work. It is built on AT Protocol, so all user content lives in user-controlled Personal Data Servers (PDSes), not on Chive's servers.

Key principle: If Chive's entire database disappears tomorrow, you lose nothing. Your eprints, reviews, and endorsements remain in your PDS, accessible via any ATProto-compatible AppView.

Features

• Decentralized ownership: Your research stays in your PDS under your control
• Open peer review: Transparent review process with threaded discussions
• Knowledge graph: Community-curated field taxonomy with Wikipedia-style moderation
• Faceted search: Find papers by field, author, methodology, time period, and more
• Citation tracking: Follow how research builds on prior work
• ATProto native: Portable identity, cryptographic verification, federated architecture

Architecture overview

Chive operates as an AppView in the AT Protocol ecosystem:

User → User's PDS (creates record) → Relay (firehose) → Chive AppView (indexes)

• Users publish eprints to their own PDSes
• Chive indexes content from the ATProto firehose
• All search and discovery happens through Chive
• Users can switch AppViews without losing data

Technology stack

Layer	Technology
Runtime	Node.js 22+, TypeScript 5.9+
API	Hono (XRPC + REST)
Databases	PostgreSQL 16+, Elasticsearch 8+, Neo4j 5+, Redis 7+
Frontend	Next.js 15, React 19, Radix UI, Tailwind CSS
Testing	Vitest, Playwright, k6
Infrastructure	Kubernetes, Docker, OpenTelemetry

Getting started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 22+
• pnpm 8+
• Docker and Docker Compose (for databases)

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/chive-pub/chive.git
cd chive

# Install dependencies
pnpm install

# Start the development database stack
./scripts/start-test-stack.sh

# Initialize databases
pnpm db:init

# Start the development server
pnpm dev

The API runs at http://localhost:3001 and the web app at http://localhost:3000.

Running tests

# Run all tests
pnpm test

# Unit tests only
pnpm test:unit

# End-to-end tests
pnpm test:e2e

# ATProto compliance tests
pnpm test:compliance

# With coverage
pnpm test:coverage

Project structure

chive/
├── src/                    # Backend source code
│   ├── api/               # Hono XRPC + REST handlers
│   ├── atproto/           # ATProto client, firehose consumer
│   ├── auth/              # Authentication, OAuth, zero-trust
│   ├── plugins/           # Plugin system and builtins
│   ├── services/          # Business logic
│   └── storage/           # Database adapters
├── web/                    # Next.js frontend
│   ├── app/               # App router pages
│   ├── components/        # React components (140+)
│   └── lib/               # Hooks, API client, utilities
├── docs/                   # Docusaurus documentation
├── tests/                  # Test suites
│   ├── unit/              # Vitest unit tests
│   ├── integration/       # Integration tests
│   ├── e2e/               # Playwright E2E tests
│   └── compliance/        # ATProto compliance tests
├── lexicons/               # ATProto lexicon schemas (pub.chive.*)
├── scripts/                # Development and admin scripts
├── docker/                 # Docker configurations
└── k8s/                    # Kubernetes manifests

ATProto compliance

Chive follows strict ATProto compliance rules:

Rule	Description
Read only	Chive reads from the firehose, never writes to user PDSes
BlobRefs only	Store CID pointers to blobs, never blob data
Rebuildable indexes	All indexes can be reconstructed from the firehose
PDS tracking	Track source PDS for staleness detection

Run pnpm test:compliance to verify compliance.

Development

Code style

• TypeScript with strict mode
• ESLint + Prettier for formatting
• TSDoc for documentation (not JSDoc)
• Active voice preferred

API type generation

After modifying backend endpoints:

# Start dev server
pnpm dev

# Regenerate frontend types
pnpm openapi:generate

# Verify types compile
pnpm typecheck

Database migrations

# Create a new migration
pnpm db:migrate:create migration_name

# Run migrations
pnpm db:migrate:up

# Rollback migrations
pnpm db:migrate:down

Plugin system

Chive uses a hybrid plugin architecture with dependency injection (TSyringe) and event hooks (EventEmitter2).

Plugins run in isolated sandboxes with declared permissions. Built-in plugins include:

• GitHub integration
• ORCID linking
• DOI registration
• Wikidata field import

See docs.chive.pub for plugin development details.

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please read our Contributing Guide before submitting PRs.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/your-feature)
3. Make your changes
4. Run tests (pnpm test)
5. Submit a pull request

Security

Chive implements Zero Trust Architecture (NIST SP 800-207):

• Every request authenticated and authorized
• Mutual TLS for inter-service communication
• DID-based cryptographic identity
• Audit logging with tamper detection

Report security vulnerabilities to admin@chive.pub. See SECURITY.md.

License

MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

Acknowledgments

Chive was architected and implemented with the help of Claude Code.