code4sa/aleph repository overview

.. epigraph::

Truth cannot penetrate a closed mind. If all places in the universe are in the Aleph, then all stars, all lamps, all sources of light are in it, too.

-- The Aleph <http://www.phinnweb.org/links/literature/borges/aleph.html>_, Jorge Luis Borges

.. figure:: https://api.travis-ci.org/alephdata/aleph.png⁠ :target: https://travis-ci.org/alephdata/aleph/⁠ :alt: Build Status

Aleph is a tool for indexing large amounts of both documents (PDF, Word, HTML) and structured (CSV, XLS, SQL) data for easy browsing and search. It is built with investigative reporting as a primary use case. Aleph allows cross-referencing mentions of well-known entities (such as people and companies) against watchlists, e.g. from prior research or public datasets.

Here's some key features:

• Web-based search across large document and data sets.
• Imports many file formats, including popular office formats, spreadsheets, email and zipped archives. Processing includes optical character recognition, language and encoding detection and named entity extraction.
• Load structured entity graph data from databases and CSV files. This allows navigation of complex datasets like companies registries, sanctions lists or procurement data. Import tools for OpenSanctions <http://opensanctions.org/>_. are included.
• Receive notifications for new search matches with a personal watchlist.
• OAuth authorization and access control on a per-source and per-watchlist basis.

⁠Documentation

The documentation for Aleph is available on our Wiki <https://github.com/alephdata/aleph/wiki>. If you wish to run your own copy of Aleph (or contribute to the development), get started with the installation documentation <https://github.com/alephdata/aleph/wiki/Installation>.

⁠Support

Aleph is used by multiple organisations, including Code for Africa, OCCRP and OpenOil. For coordination, the following mailing list exists: aleph-search <https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/aleph-search>_

If you find any errors or issues using Aleph please file an issue on GitHub <https://github.com/alephdata/aleph/issues/new>_ or contact the mailing list.