CodeMeta to Zenodo Converter

GitHub Action to convert codemeta.json files to .zenodo.json format using the eOSSR library.

This action uses the eossr-codemeta2zenodo command to convert metadata descriptive files from the CodeMeta schema to the Zenodo schema, making it easy to automatically generate Zenodo-compatible metadata for your software releases.

Features

• 🚀 Automatically converts CodeMeta metadata to Zenodo format
• 🔧 Configurable input file path (defaults to codemeta.json)
• 🛡️ Safe by default: fails if output file exists unless explicitly overwritten
• ✅ Validates .zenodo.json with eossr-zenodo-validator
• 🎯 Optional --add-escape2020 support to add ESCAPE2020 community/grant metadata
• 📦 Uses the official eossr container

Usage

Basic Usage

Add this step to your workflow to convert codemeta.json in your repository root to .zenodo.json:

- name: Convert CodeMeta to Zenodo
  uses: escape2020/codemeta2zenodo@v1.1.0

Custom Input File

The default behaviour will look for a codemeta.json file at the ROOT of your repository (note that this is the CodeMeta recommendation) but you can specify a custom path to your CodeMeta file :

- name: Convert CodeMeta to Zenodo
  uses: escape2020/codemeta2zenodo@v1.1.0
  with:
    codemeta_file: 'metadata/codemeta.json'

With Overwrite

Allow overwriting an existing .zenodo.json file:

- name: Convert CodeMeta to Zenodo
  uses: escape2020/codemeta2zenodo@v1.1.0
  with:
    overwrite: true

Add ESCAPE2020 Community and Grant

Option to add the ESCAPE community and grant in the metadata:

- name: Convert CodeMeta to Zenodo
  uses: escape2020/codemeta2zenodo@v1.1.0
  with:
    add_escape2020: true

Inputs

Input	Description	Required	Default
codemeta_file	Path to the codemeta.json file	No	codemeta.json
overwrite	Overwrite existing .zenodo.json file if it exists	No	false
add_escape2020	Add ESCAPE2020 community and grant number to .zenodo.json	No	false

Outputs

Output	Description
zenodo_file	Path to the generated .zenodo.json file (always ./.zenodo.json)

Complete Workflow Examples

Convert and Commit

Automatically convert CodeMeta to Zenodo and commit the result:

name: Update Zenodo Metadata

on:
  push:
    paths:
      - 'codemeta.json'
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  convert:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v6

      - name: Convert CodeMeta to Zenodo
        uses: escape2020/codemeta2zenodo@v1.1.0
        with:
          overwrite: true

      - name: Commit changes
        run: |
          git config --local user.email "github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com"
          git config --local user.name "github-actions[bot]"
          git add .zenodo.json
          git diff --quiet && git diff --staged --quiet || git commit -m "Update .zenodo.json from codemeta.json"
          git push

Convert on Release

Generate Zenodo metadata when creating a release:

name: Prepare Release

on:
  release:
    types: [published]

jobs:
  prepare-zenodo:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v6

      - name: Convert CodeMeta to Zenodo
        uses: escape2020/codemeta2zenodo@v1.1.0
        with:
          overwrite: true

      - name: Upload .zenodo.json as release asset
        uses: actions/upload-release-asset@v1.1.0
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
        with:
          upload_url: ${{ github.event.release.upload_url }}
          asset_path: ./.zenodo.json
          asset_name: .zenodo.json
          asset_content_type: application/json

About

This action uses the eossr (ESCAPE Open Source Software Repository) container which provides tools for managing scientific software metadata.

eossr v2.2.0 enables the --add-escape2020 option to map CodeMeta funding information to Zenodo grant metadata.

What is CodeMeta?

CodeMeta is a metadata standard for software that helps describe software projects in a structured way, making them more discoverable and citable.

What is Zenodo?

Zenodo is a general-purpose open-access repository that allows researchers to deposit research papers, datasets, research software, reports, and any other research related digital artifacts. The .zenodo.json file allows you to configure how your software releases are archived on Zenodo.

Citation

If you use this action in your research, please cite the ESCAPE Open-source Software and Service Repository:

@Article{Vuillaume2023,
  author  = {Vuillaume, T and Al-Turany, M and Füßling, M and Gal, T and Garcia, E and Graf, K and Hughes, G and Kettenis, M and Kresan, D and Schnabel, J and Tacke, C and Verkouter, M},
  title   = {The ESCAPE Open-source Software and Service Repository},
  journal = {Open Research Europe},
  year    = {2023},
  volume  = {3},
  number  = {46},
  doi     = {10.12688/openreseurope.15692.2},
  note    = {version 2; peer review: 5 approved}
}

See CITATION.cff for the full citation information.

License

This action is provided as-is. The eossr library is part of the ESCAPE project.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.