The Netherlands has soft-launched a Forgejo-based code forge to reduce reliance on GitHub and GitLab, citing digital sovereignty, supply-chain integrity and public control over code infrastructure.
The Dutch government has soft-launched code.overheid.nl, a self-hosted platform for publishing government open source software, positioning it as the foundation for a sovereign alternative to GitHub and GitLab.
Driven by digital sovereignty concerns, the initiative seeks greater public-sector control over critical code infrastructure. The government has classified external developer platforms as risky because they are outside government control and not fully free software.
Security and software integrity are central to the move. “Furthermore, hosting source code is a critical component of the Dutch government’s infrastructure. The government cannot afford the risk of code or binaries in repositories being tampered with,” the government said, adding that full control over a Git forge is essential.
The Open Source Program Office (OSPO) within the Ministry of the Interior selected Forgejo as the platform foundation. “Forgejo offers the ability to study, modify, and distribute all of its source code… Public money, public code,” OSPO said, framing the move as an investment in the public domain.
Currently accessible to a limited group of government institutions, the platform is being built collaboratively with developers and is expected to support broader inter-agency collaboration on shared tooling and software.
The government has also issued a community call to help shape the platform, stating, “Only by working together can we create a fully-fledged GitHub alternative.” The move positions open source not only as a software choice, but as a national infrastructure strategy.
