git4docs is the open-source engine behind improvia - a compliance document management SaaS for ISO, FDA, and SOX-regulated companies. The core is here, open and inspectable. improvia adds hosting, teams, billing, and an AI layer on top.
Your audit trail is already built. Every commit is a timestamped, author-attributed record of exactly what changed. Not a log field in a database someone could edit. An immutable chain baked into the repo. An auditor asks who approved revision 4 of your SOP - you show them the commit.
Cryptographic proof of content. Every document has a blob hash. Same bytes in, same hash out, every time, on any machine. When you approve a document you're approving a specific hash. You can prove years later it hasn't changed.
Approval workflows that make structural sense. A document under review is a branch. Approval is a merge. Any change resets the review. This isn't bolted on - it's how Git already works.
The system governs itself. The document that defines who approves what lives in the same repo and goes through the same approval workflow. No separate admin panel with settings nobody audits.
No vendor lock-in, ever. Your documents are markdown files in a Git repo. If you stop using git4docs tomorrow, everything goes with you.
improvia.app - git4docs with hosting, teams, and AI. Free tier available.
- Node.js 18+
- npm
git clone https://github.com/Denchworth/git4docs.git
cd git4docs
# Install server dependencies
npm install
# Install client dependencies
cd client && npm install && cd ..
# Start development server
npm run devOpen http://localhost:3001 and create your first account at /signup.
npm run build
npm start| Variable | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
PORT |
Server port | 3001 |
DATABASE_PATH |
SQLite database path | ./data/git4docs.db |
STORAGE_PATH |
Git repository storage | ./storage/companies |
JWT_SECRET |
JWT signing secret | auto-generated |
- Backend: Node.js, Express, TypeScript, SQLite, isomorphic-git
- Frontend: React, Vite, Tailwind CSS, TipTap editor
- Storage: Git repositories (one per tenant), SQLite for metadata
- Document library with categories (Policy, SOP, Work Instruction, Form)
- Full version history on every document
- Review and approval workflows
- Redline comparison between any two versions
- Role-based access — viewers, editors, approvers
- Governance documents that configure the system from inside the system
- Acknowledgment tracking for approved changes
- Configurable revision numbering (letters, numbers, padded)
- Multi-tenant — each organization gets its own Git repo
AGPL-3.0 — see LICENSE