A registry is a hosted collection of OpenForm artifacts. Registries can be public or private. The CLI uses them to discover, install, and manage artifacts in your projects.

Using registries

Adding a registry

Add a registry to your project by editing open-form.json:

{
  "registries": {
    "@acme": "https://registry.acme.com"
  }
}

Or add one globally so it's available across all projects:

ofm registry add @acme https://registry.acme.com --global

For registries that require authentication, use the extended format:

{
  "registries": {
    "@private": {
      "url": "https://registry.example.com",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer ${REGISTRY_TOKEN}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Searching for artifacts

Use ofm search to query a registry:

ofm search --query "lease"
ofm search --kind form --tags legal
ofm search --registry @acme "tax"

The query matches against artifact names, titles, and descriptions. Filter by --kind or --tags to narrow results.

Installing artifacts

Use ofm add to install an artifact. The CLI resolves the namespace to a registry, downloads the definition, writes it to your artifacts directory, and updates the lock file:

ofm add @acme/residential-lease

Download layers alongside the definition:

ofm add @acme/residential-lease --layers all

Viewing artifact details

View metadata for an installed artifact:

ofm registry view @acme/residential-lease

Direct URL installs

Install from a URL directly, bypassing namespace resolution:

ofm add https://example.com/artifacts/my-form.yaml

Private registries

For private registries, configure authentication headers with environment variable tokens:

{
  "registries": {
    "@private": {
      "url": "https://registry.example.com",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer ${REGISTRY_TOKEN}"
      }
    }
  }
}

export REGISTRY_TOKEN="your-token-here"
ofm add @private/internal-form

For local development servers running over HTTP, set allowInsecure:

{
  "registries": {
    "@local": {
      "url": "http://localhost:4567",
      "allowInsecure": true
    }
  }
}

Managing registries

List all configured registries (project and global):

ofm registry list

Remove a registry:

ofm registry remove @acme --global

See the registry command reference for all subcommands.

Creating registries

Registry structure

A registry is a directory containing a registry.json index file and individual artifact files:

my-registry/
├── registry.json           # Registry index
└── artifacts/
    ├── residential-lease/
    │   ├── artifact.yaml   # Artifact definition
    │   └── lease.pdf       # Layer files
    └── w9/
        ├── artifact.yaml
        └── w9.pdf

Registry index

The registry.json file lists all available artifacts:

{
  "$schema": "https://schema.open-form.dev/registry.json",
  "name": "@acme",
  "title": "Acme Forms Registry",
  "description": "Official forms and documents for Acme Corp",
  "artifacts": [
    {
      "name": "residential-lease",
      "version": "1.0.0",
      "kind": "form",
      "title": "Residential Lease Agreement",
      "description": "Standard residential lease agreement",
      "tags": ["legal", "real-estate", "lease"],
      "path": "artifacts/residential-lease/artifact.yaml"
    }
  ]
}

Index fields

Artifact entry fields

Workflow

The CLI provides commands to scaffold and manage a registry:

1. Create the registry — ofm registry make generates a registry.json with your namespace and metadata.

2. Add artifacts to the catalog — ofm registry catalog manages the artifacts listed in the index.

3. Compile — ofm registry compile validates all artifacts and prepares the registry for publishing.

ofm registry make --name @acme --title "Acme Forms Registry"
ofm registry catalog add residential-lease ./artifacts/residential-lease/artifact.yaml
ofm registry compile

Hosting

A registry is just static files served over HTTPS. Any hosting provider or web server works:

• GitHub Pages — free for public repositories
• Netlify / Vercel — deploy from a Git repository
• AWS S3 + CloudFront — scalable, cost-effective
• nginx / Apache — self-hosted

For local development, serve the directory with a static file server:

npx serve my-registry -l 4567

Then configure the local registry with allowInsecure:

{
  "registries": {
    "@local": {
      "url": "http://localhost:4567",
      "allowInsecure": true
    }
  }
}

Example: GitHub Pages

1. Create a repository with your registry structure (registry.json + artifacts/)
2. Enable GitHub Pages in repository settings (serve from the root or docs/ folder)
3. Configure the registry in your project:

{
  "registries": {
    "@myorg": "https://myorg.github.io/openform-registry"
  }
}

The CLI fetches https://myorg.github.io/openform-registry/registry.json to discover available artifacts.

Best practices

1. Version your artifacts — use semantic versioning for all artifacts
2. Add descriptive tags — help users discover artifacts through search
3. Include descriptions — add descriptions to the registry, artifacts, and fields
4. Validate before publishing — run ofm validate on all artifacts before compiling
5. Use HTTPS — always use HTTPS in production (HTTP only for local development)