Djehuty next steps: get involved and help us to grow!

Authors: Daniel Bangert, Gabriela Kuhn, Madeleine de Smaele

Dje­huty is a repos­i­to­ry sys­tem pow­er­ing data repos­i­to­ries to share, pre­serve, cite, find and reuse research data and soft­ware. It is free and open source soft­ware, devel­oped in-house for 4TU.ResearchData. It enables the cre­ation and man­age­ment of FAIR (Find­able, Acces­si­ble, Inter­op­er­a­ble, Reusable) data and soft­ware in the nat­ur­al and engi­neer­ing sci­ences (NES) domain, and facil­i­tates mak­ing it avail­able to oth­ers.

Dje­huty per­fect­ly express­es the strate­gic goals of 4TU.ResearchData [1], both as the basis for lead­ing domain-spe­cif­ic infra­struc­ture that sup­ports a com­mu­ni­ty and cul­ture of FAIR data and soft­ware, as well as an exam­ple of part­ner­ship in devel­op­ment and impact. 4TU.ResearchData is there­fore ded­i­cat­ed to the sus­tain­able gov­er­nance and main­te­nance of Dje­huty, guid­ing the roadmap for future devel­op­ment as well as exist­ing and new col­lab­o­ra­tions with the com­mu­ni­ty at large. 

Dje­huty became avail­able in 2022 and has since been in use for the 4TU.ResearchData repos­i­to­ry [2] and, from 2024, by the Nikhef insti­tu­tion­al repos­i­to­ry HADRON [3]. Future plans for Dje­huty include enhanc­ing its func­tion­al­i­ties through a new project on Enabling FAIR for AI [4], fund­ed by Open Sci­ence NL. 

We are grate­ful to every­one who has con­tributed since 2022, and in par­tic­u­lar to Roel Janssen, the main author of the Dje­huty code­base. The code­base is open­ly avail­able and over 20 peo­ple from its broad com­mu­ni­ty have already made valu­able con­tri­bu­tions. Build­ing on this, we have recent­ly con­sol­i­dat­ed the struc­ture and com­mu­ni­ca­tion of our devel­op­ment plan­ning and col­lab­o­ra­tions. Devel­op­ment plans, issue track­ing, and code changes are host­ed on GitHub [5], where any­one can fol­low or par­tic­i­pate. We hope that this fur­ther strength­ens and facil­i­tates con­tri­bu­tions from the com­mu­ni­ty and fos­ters adop­tion in new con­texts and by more insti­tu­tions.

A call to the community

We are excit­ed to take the next step and invite new con­trib­u­tors to bring fresh ideas and help us con­tin­ue to grow. How­ev­er you would like to con­tribute — whether by report­ing or fix­ing bugs, refin­ing or adding func­tion­al­i­ty, or con­tribut­ing domain‑specific insights — your con­tri­bu­tion mat­ters! 

Active com­mu­ni­ty par­tic­i­pa­tion is essen­tial for address­ing the spe­cif­ic needs of the NES domain, sus­tain­ing mean­ing­ful inno­va­tion, and cre­at­ing a thriv­ing ecosys­tem of FAIR data and soft­ware.

The resources list­ed here will help you to get up and run­ning:

• Con­tribut­ing guide­lines
• Doc­u­men­ta­tion
• Issue track­er
• Roadmap
• Releas­es

Need some help get­ting start­ed with Dje­huty or have ques­tions about the code­base? Please reach out to us at djehuty@4tu.nl

We look for­ward to work­ing with you and build­ing a vibrant and inclu­sive com­mu­ni­ty! 

References and links

1. 4TU.ResearchData Strat­e­gy 2025–2029: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14176780
2. 4TU.ResearchData repos­i­to­ry: https://data.4tu.nl
3. Nikhef insti­tu­tion­al repos­i­to­ry HADRON: https://archive.nikhef.nl
4. 4TU.ResearchData involved in new projects to strength­en open sci­ence infra­struc­ture https://community.data.4tu.nl/2026/02/13/4tu-researchdata-involved-in-new-projects-to-strengthen-open-science-infrastructure/
5. Dje­huty GitHub: https://github.com/4TUResearchData/djehuty