A new free and open-source interface for the China Biographical Database

Live Demo: dh-tools.com/cbdb

Download: macOS (Apple Silicon)

CBDB Desktop & Web 2025.0520.0.1.0 - Demo Interface

China Biographical Database (CBDB) is a project started by Robert M. Hartwell and Michael A. Fuller and is currently owned and maintained by teams at Harvard University, Academia Sinica, and Peking University.

• CBDB Data: Licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
• CBDB Database Schema: The database schema structure of CBDB remains under additional copyright protection
• Commercial Use in China: An exclusive commercial license for CBDB in mainland China is in place (granted to ChineseAll.com since 2018). Learn more at https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/cbdb/exclusive-commercial-license

• Software License: CBDB Desktop & Web (this application) is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0)
• Source Code: Available at https://github.com/boan-anbo/cbdb-web
• Important Note: While CBDB Desktop & Web's data modeling and software are AGPL-3.0, the CBDB data itself remains under its separate licensing terms, and the data schema of the original CBDB database is additionally copyrighted and cannot be re-copyrighted

This application includes the latest CBDB SQLite database (version 2025-05-20) from the CBDB SQLite project.

Learn more about CBDB: https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/cbdb

CBDB Desktop & Web is a free and open-source interface built with web technology that provides new ways to use the China Biographical Database (CBDB data is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0; CBDB schema is separately copyrighted). The software itself is licensed under AGPL-3.0. CBDB Web is the same interface but a hosted version at dh-tools.com/cbdb.

This tech demo demonstrates that these capabilities are achievable:

• Offline-first desktop application with bundled database, ready to use (bundle size ~312MB, half of which is the embedded CBDB database)
• Recreation of CBDB Access version features with modern web technologies
• Infrastructure for analytics features such as network analysis, timeline visualization, and GIS
• A new data layer (see details below) providing a solid foundation for future integrations including with LLMs
• Documented local REST API for programmatic access
• Cross-platform support (Windows, macOS, Linux)
• Support for cross-system interoperability with research software such as Zotero

Currently, only the macOS (ARM/Apple Silicon) version is available for download from the Releases page. Windows, Linux, and Intel Mac versions will be made available in future releases.

• CBDB Access Version by Michael A. Fuller (Installation Guide): This project learned from Professor Fuller's interface design and studied portions of the Visual Basic source code to understand core business logic. If possible, this project will help to recreate the entire Access interface and all of its features and analytics capabilities. The extracted VB source code from the Access version is provided in the access_restored folder for archiving and study purposes.
• CBDB Online PHP Version (GitHub): This project also learned from the API design and aims to achieve parity with the PHP server version of CBDB.

CBDB Desktop & Web introduces significant architectural and conceptual improvements:

• Future-Proof Tech Stack & Contract-Driven Development: A unified TypeScript/JavaScript stack across frontend, backend, and shared contracts within a monorepo structure, ensuring longevity through mature open-source technologies and implementation flexibility via stable interfaces.

• Four-layer Data Modeling: A systematic approach to data modeling that creates standard models for core entities, achieving what the Access version attempted with denormalized tables.

• Standard and Modular API Design: External systems can rely on standard data shapes rather than raw table structures. The modularized API allows flexible composition with interactive documentation.

• Extensive Testing: Basic test coverage is already in place to ensure data stability and correctness across the entire stack. For example, tests validate data mapping accuracy against official CBDB sources, verify API compatibility with the PHP service, and ensure consistent behavior across different graph traversal depths. These serve as living documentation and provide confidence during refactoring. Integration tests use real CBDB data to validate complex queries. Future work includes comprehensive Access parity tests.

• Reproduce the classic Access experience (feature parity over time)
• Domain-specific analytics capabilities based upon user feedback and use cases
• Integrations with LLMs for AI assistance
• ... and more

Bo An [email protected]

Last updated: September 29, 2025