How GitHub Is Preserving Open‑Source Code in the Arctic for a Millennium

Note: Unlike "wife cake" or "Antarctic fleece," there truly is an "Arctic Code Vault" built near the Arctic.

In late November 2020 and on February 20, 2021, GitHub announced its open‑source permanent archive plan, the Arctic Code Vault.

The open‑source movement is a monumental, long‑lasting endeavor; open‑source software is a potential cornerstone of modern civilization, and its code is a shared human heritage that should be preserved for future generations. To achieve this, GitHub intends to archive these resources in the Arctic for 1,000 years.

GitHub has written a 21 TB snapshot onto 186 reels of piqlFilm digital optical archive film, in collaboration with Piql.

Due to the COVID‑19 pandemic, GitHub cancelled a team plan to physically escort the world’s open‑source code to the Arctic and instead stored it on July 8 in an abandoned mine.

The archive will be placed on the Svalbard archipelago, which also hosts the world seed bank.

The code will reside in the town of Longyearbyen on Svalbard; a local logistics company will deliver the code to the storage area. The town lies within the Arctic Circle, with permafrost up to 250 m deep. GitHub will capture snapshots of every public repository on February 2, 2020, and store the data in a sealed chamber deep within the permafrost for centuries.

Norway’s Svalbard archipelago is home to the world’s northernmost town.

Svalbard is governed by the international Svalbard Treaty, is a demilitarized zone, and is one of the most remote and geopolitically stable human settlements on Earth.

AWA is a joint project between Norway’s state‑owned mining company Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani (SNSK) and long‑term digital storage provider Piql AS, dedicated to permanent archival. Data on film reels are stored in sealed steel containers within an abandoned coal mine on Svalbard. AWA has already preserved historical cultural data from Italy, Brazil, Norway, the Vatican, and many other countries.

GitHub’s Arctic repository includes public code repositories and many “dormant” repositories. Snapshots consist of the HEAD of each repository’s default branch, excluding binary files larger than 100 kB. Each repository is packaged into a single TAR file; for efficiency, most data are stored as QR codes.

There are readable indexes and guides listing each repository’s location and instructions on how to recover the data.

If you have received an “Arctic Code Vault Contributor” badge on GitHub, congratulations—your code will also be preserved on the Norwegian island, and your GitHub profile will display the badge.

Let’s fight for honor together.

Compiled by: Xiao Qiao