NRP Invenio Documentation

The Czech National Repository Platform (NRP) is a nationwide initiative that provides a unified, sustainable ecosystem for operating digital repositories across the Czech Republic. It aligns standards, services, and infrastructure to support the effective management, preservation, and dissemination of research outputs and cultural heritage.

This site documents the Invenio-based part of NRP, which forms one of the core technological pillars of the platform. While the broader NRP ecosystem spans multiple repository technologies and shared national services, the content here is focused exclusively on repositories based on InvenioRDM.

Scope

This documentation covers:

• The architecture, configuration, development and operation of NRP repositories based on InvenioRDM software.
• NRP-specific extensions for Invenio, including:
  • metadata model tooling
  • vocabulary and taxonomy management
  • UI customization and frontend build processes
  • packaging, deployment, and orchestration patterns
• Guidance for users, developers, integrators, and administrators working on Invenio-based services under the NRP umbrella.

Relationship to the NRP Project

This site complements the high-level documentation available at: https://docs.nrp.eosc.cz/ 

The main NRP documentation describes:

• project governance
• national shared services (authentication, PID infrastructure, harvesting, long-term preservation)
• institution onboarding
• interoperability standards
• overall platform architecture

Intended Audience

• Software engineers and frontend developers working with NRP Invenio modules
• Repository administrators and DevOps teams deploying or configuring Invenio-based repositories
• Institutional integrators adapting Invenio to local institutional needs while maintaining NRP compatibility
• End users and researchers seeking guidance on using NRP Invenio repositories effectively

Getting in touch

For questions, feedback, or contributions related to this documentation or NRP Invenio repositories, please contact the NRP Invenio team at cesnet-invenio@eosc.cz.

We also provide a low-traffic mailing list for notifications about updates to the CESNET Invenio platform and InvenioRDM in general. You are welcome to subscribe at lists.cesnet.cz .

Release Policy

CESNET provides additional features and customizations on top of the core InvenioRDM software.
Starting with version 14, the release, support and versioning policy is defined as follows:

General Policy

• The official InvenioRDM maintenance policy is defined at:
  InvenioRDM maintenance policy 

• CESNET Invenio follows the same maintenance model for NRP Invenio releases.
  Each CESNET Invenio release is supported for at least 18 months from its release date.

• During the supported period, CESNET provides:

  • Bug fixes
  • Security updates

  No new features are added, and no breaking changes are introduced.

CESNET Invenio 14 Release

CESNET Invenio 14 release is planned for July 2026.

CESNET Invenio 12 Support Policy

Due to substantial architectural and functional changes introduced between CESNET Invenio 12 and CESNET Invenio 14, and skipping of CESNET Invenio 13 version, CESNET will provide extended support for CESNET Invenio 12 under the following conditions:

• Support continues until December 31, 2026
• Scope of support is limited to:
  • Blocker bug fixes
  • Security updates

This extended support applies until December 31, 2026 even in case RDM 12 is no longer supported by the upstream InvenioRDM maintainers.

Development Version

• Users may opt in to the development version of CESNET Invenio.

• The development version:

  • May include new features
  • May introduce breaking changes
  • Is not guaranteed to be stable
  • Is not covered by the standard support guarantees

• CESNET executes extensive unit and integration testing to reduce the risk of regressions and defects in the development branch.

• CESNET informs users about the development version through:

  • Release notes for each new release, highlighting changes and potential impacts
  • Regular updates on the mailing list regarding significant changes or issues in the development branch

• Following a model similar to Zenodo, CESNET-owned repositories (such as datarepo and nma) are built on defined tags of the development version.

Versioning Policy of Packages

• CESNET Invenio versions are aligned with the upstream InvenioRDM versioning.
  For example, if the latest InvenioRDM release is 14.x, the corresponding CESNET Invenio release will be 14.y, where x and y can differ based on the timing of releases and the inclusion of CESNET-specific features and fixes.

• The top-level package that pins versions of all dependencies is named oarepo-app.
  This package is released with the same major version as the corresponding InvenioRDM release.

• During development, dev, alpha, and beta releases of oarepo-app may be published to allow users to test new features and provide feedback before the final release.
  These pre-releases may contain breaking changes and are not guaranteed to be stable.

• The final release of oarepo-app is published within a short timeframe after the corresponding InvenioRDM release.
  This final release is considered stable and is supported according to the general policy outlined above.

• As CESNET Invenio releases contain patches to the original InvenioRDM codebase, the packages are published both on PyPI and on the public CESNET GitLab package registry.
  CESNET provides development scripts that automatically configure access to this registry.

• CESNET libraries follow Semantic Versioning (SemVer):

  • The major version is incremented when breaking changes are introduced.
  • The minor version is incremented when new features are added in a backward-compatible manner.
  • The patch version is incremented when backward-compatible bug fixes are made.

For background information, please see RDM release management 

What’s Next?