What Are the Federal Source Code Repositories on Data.gov?

Updated

Federal Source Code Repositories on Data.gov are a dedicated section where U.S. federal agencies' source code repositories are made publicly discoverable. The SHARE IT Act (Public Law 118-187) requires federal agencies to maintain source code repositories and make them publicly discoverable through Data.gov. This section exists so that the public, developers, and researchers can find and explore open source projects produced across the federal government.

Why this section exists

The SHARE IT Act (Public Law 118-187) is the legal driver. Under it, federal agencies must:

  • Maintain source code repositories
  • Make those repositories publicly discoverable through Data.gov

Data.gov's role here is as the discovery layer — the place where those repositories are surfaced and linked, rather than the place where the code itself necessarily lives.

What you can do in this section

According to the Data.gov page, the Federal Source Code Repositories area lets you:

  • Explore agency code repositories — browse repositories published by federal agencies
  • Track compliance status — see how agencies are doing against the SHARE IT Act requirement
  • Discover open source projects from across the federal government

The page provides a "View Code Repositories" entry point that takes you to the actual repository listings.

How it fits into Data.gov overall

Data.gov describes itself as "the home of the U.S. Government's open data," offering data, tools, and resources to conduct research, develop web and mobile applications, design data visualizations, and more. The catalog lists 570,120 datasets available, alongside sections for Geospatial data and the Code Repository.

So the Federal Source Code Repositories are a distinct resource type on Data.gov — separate from the dataset catalog. If you are looking for government data, you use the dataset search. If you are looking for government code, this is the section to use.

When to use it

Use the Federal Source Code Repositories section when you want to:

  • Find source code published by federal agencies
  • Check whether a specific agency has made its repositories discoverable
  • Discover open source projects from across the federal government for reuse or contribution

If your goal is datasets rather than code, the main Data.gov search and the Most Viewed / Recently Added / Datasets by Organization listings are the better starting points.

Getting started

  1. Go to Data.gov.
  2. Locate the Federal Source Code Repositories section.
  3. Select View Code Repositories.
  4. Browse agency repositories, review compliance status, and open individual projects of interest.

The page itself does not state pricing or login requirements for this section, so treat access conditions as something to confirm on the repository pages you reach.