A version-controlled storage location for source code, typically operated on top of a distributed version-control system such as Git, exposing the code's full revision history, branches, tags, and (often) collaboration features such as issues, pull requests, and code review.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 10 Jul 2026

Examples

Worked examples

Is an instance
A Git repository on GitHub for an open-source research software project.
Is an instance
A self-hosted GitLab repository at a research institute for internal scientific code.

Counter-examples

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance
A zip file of source code on a personal webpage is not a code repository in the version-control sense.
Not an instance
A data-only repository with no source code is not a code repository.

Editorial commentary

Code repositories are the canonical home of research software during development. Platforms include GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Codeberg, and self-hosted Git instances; mercurial and SVN platforms persist in some communities. Within research-information ecosystems, code repositories are distinct from but linked to data repositories: a code repository may be referenced from a dataset’s DataCite metadata via a ‘IsSupplementedBy’ relationship, or vice versa. For citation and long-term archival, releases from code repositories are typically deposited in Zenodo (with a DOI) or in Software Heritage.

References

Chacon S., Straub B., 'Pro Git', Apress, 2nd edition, 2014 (git-scm.com/book).

Also known as

Source code repository · Code repo

Machine-readable encodings

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="Code repository"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/code-repository" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/code-repository",
  "name": "Code repository",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/code-repository",
  "description": "A version-controlled storage location for source code, typically operated on top of a distributed version-control system such as Git, exposing the code's full revision history, branches, tags, and (often) collaboration features such as issues, pull requests, and code review.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/data-infrastructure#set",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/code-repository",
  "sameAs": [
    "Source code repository",
    "Code repo"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "publisher": {
    "@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
  },
  "dateModified": "2026-07-10T02:06:21",
  "inLanguage": "en"
}

Referenced across the research world

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