Dutch Government and Developer Pivot to Self-Hosted Forgejo Over Sovereignty Concerns
Both entities selected the fully open-source Forgejo platform to ensure digital autonomy, prioritising governance and data control over the convenience of US-based cloud providers.
The Dutch Ministry of the Interior has launched code.overheid.nl, a self-hosted instance of the Forgejo code hosting platform, marking a significant shift toward digital sovereignty for government software. Project manager Boris Van Hoytema stated the platform was established to meet the legal requirement that source code developed with public funds must be published on infrastructure the ministry controls. The decision to adopt Forgejo over alternatives such as GitLab was driven by the latter’s fully open-source licensing under GPLv3+, which avoids the commercial feature gating found in open-core models.
This institutional move mirrors the actions of independent developer Jorijn Schrijvershof, who completed the migration of his personal code repositories to a self-hosted Forgejo instance on May 13, 2026. Schrijvershof cited concerns over Microsoft’s integration of artificial intelligence features, data privacy policies, and the jurisdictional reach of US laws such as the CLOUD Act as primary drivers for leaving GitHub. He noted that while GitHub offers convenience, the platform’s absorption into Microsoft’s CoreAI division has shifted control away from independent developer governance.
Schrijvershof’s infrastructure runs on a single hardened Intel NUC with 64 GB of RAM, utilising Docker for Forgejo v15 LTS, Postgres 17, and Traefik. An Incus-managed KVM virtual machine hosts the continuous integration runners, a setup designed to isolate untrusted code execution. The developer employs Renovate for dependency updates, as Forgejo lacks native support for GitHub’s Dependabot tool. His migration strategy involves archiving public GitHub repositories and pointing them to the new instance, rather than immediate deletion, to maintain contributor access.
The Dutch government’s selection of Forgejo was deliberate, with Van Hoytema noting that the platform’s roadmap aligned more closely with their needs for digital autonomy than competitors. The choice reflects the Netherlands’ “Open, tenzij” policy, which mandates open-source development for publicly funded software. By choosing a platform with no open-core split, the ministry ensured that all necessary features remain accessible without commercial restrictions, distinguishing its approach from other European initiatives that rely on GitLab or aggregated indexing services.
Schrijvershof acknowledged the operational friction of the transition, including the loss of GitHub’s social graph and ecosystem compatibility. He noted that while Forgejo Actions aims for familiarity, specific workflow configurations require adjustment, and the platform lacks the 24/7 vendor support associated with enterprise GitHub plans. Despite these challenges, he maintains that the trade-off is justified by the need for ownership, positioning Forgejo as a viable alternative for developers prioritising long-term control over short-term convenience.
