Software Heritage Archive Screensaver
The Software Heritage Archive screensaver shows real archived repositories from Software Heritage, the universal source-code archive, read key-less from its own API. The search term rotates, so the feed wanders across the archive. It's free, runs in your browser, and ESC exits.
Live preview
Press ESC to leave fullscreen. Settings are saved in your browser only.
How the Software Heritage Archive screensaver works
The saver reads the Software Heritage API directly in your browser — no key and no account.
Real archived repositories from Software Heritage, the universal source-code archive, read key-less from its own API.
It refreshes on a schedule, so what you see stays current.
Colours can be changed in settings; nothing is stored beyond your own browser.
Why Software Heritage exists
Software Heritage is a non-profit initiative that began at Inria, the French national research institute for digital science and technology, and is supported by UNESCO. Its stated goal is to collect, preserve and share all software that is publicly available in source code form. Code hosting platforms come and go, and a project that disappears from a forge can vanish with it, so the archive keeps independent copies.
Archived code is ingested into a Merkle DAG, a graph in which each node is identified by a hash of its own content and of the nodes it points to. Every archived artifact carries an intrinsic identifier, a SoftWare Hash IDentifier (SWHID), so the same content always gets the same ID and can be cited precisely in papers. The archive gathers code from hosting platforms such as GitHub, GitLab.com and Bitbucket and from package archives such as npm and PyPI.
The saver searches the archive and shows matching origins, using a search term that changes over time so the display moves around. Being in the archive means a copy exists, not that the code is good, maintained or safe. The search matches names and URLs, so results can include forks, abandoned experiments and tiny repositories alongside famous ones.
A worked example
Real archived repositories from Software Heritage, the universal source-code archive, read key-less from its own API. The search term rotates, so the feed wanders across the archive.
Settings & tips
- Accent and Background recolour the display.
- Data comes straight from the Software Heritage API in your browser.
- Press ESC to leave fullscreen.
Frequently asked questions
- Is this real data?
- Yes — it comes from the Software Heritage API and is refreshed on a schedule.
- Is a key needed?
- No. This source is fully key-less.
- Is it free?
- Yes — free, no download, in your browser.
- Does archiving mean the project is endorsed?
- No. The archive aims to preserve all publicly available source code, so it holds popular, obscure and abandoned code alike.
- What is an intrinsic identifier?
- An ID computed from the content itself, so the same content always has the same ID. Software Heritage calls its identifiers SWHIDs, and they let people cite exact versions of code permanently.