Back to our roots: Open Fifth at the Koha Hackfest 2026
Last updated on: 2nd April 2026| 2nd April 2026 | Martin Renvoize | Community
Getting down to brass tacks
We arrived in waves, but special credit go to our Infrastructure Interloper, Jake Bateman, who arrived first by bike after cycling across the continent! Talk about an entrance.
Once we settled into the Biblibre office on Monday, we hit the ground running. Our strategy was simple: Grab the good seats and spread out. By embedding ourselves among different groups, we ensured we could collaborate with as many community members as possible.
Martin Renvoize spent a good chunk of his week “pushing to main”, clearing the release manager’s queue to make room for new submissions. He also teamed up with Lisette Scheer (ByWater Solutions) and Janusz Kaczmarek (Librarian, Poland) on the Action Logs Initiative. The goal? Unifying logs so they record clear, consistent, structured changes, making life much easier for end-users.
Modernising the core
A few of our “under the hood” projects took centre stage this year:
- System daemon migration: Jake B worked alongside Tomas Cohen (Theke) and Jake Deery to drag Koha’s init system into the modern age.
- Identity providers: Martin and Jacob O’Mara worked on migrating SAML2/Shibboleth configurations from messy XML files directly into the staff admin interface. With help from Matthias Meusburger (Biblibre), we are closer than ever to a unified auth management system (including OIDC, CAS, and LDAP).
- Performance & architecture: We had spirited debates about replacing Starman with Hypnotoad or Mojolicious as our application server. Jake D built some impressive proof-of-concepts that suggest some serious speed wins are on the horizon.
Enhancing the librarian experience
It wasn’t all just backend code; we made significant strides in features that impact daily library workflows:
- Circulation & long overdue triggers: Chloé Zermatten demonstrated the progress on migrating overdue configurations into the admin area. We’re thrilled that Nick Clemens (ByWater Solutions) has committed to QAing this work to help us get it over the finish line.
- ISO 18626 ILL: Pedro Amorim (after surviving a nightmare of flight cancellations!) presented on supporting ISO 18626 as a supplier in Koha—a giant leap forward for the ILL module.
- ERM improvements: It was rewarding to see the Electronic Resource Management (ERM) module, which Open Fifth worked hard to build, being adopted and improved upon by organisations like KIT.
- The future of search: We had some serious “future-gazing” sessions regarding Elasticsearch and Zebra. With upstream support shifting, we’re exploring alternatives, including the possibility of a lightweight SQL-based search for smaller set-ups.
- Acquisitions: Michaela Sieber (KIT) presented an update on the acquisitions module redesign with Matt Blenkinsop (remotely, as he’s been a little poorly and couldn’t join us in person this year), Jonathan Field and Andrew Auld . There’s been huge progress on this work, with much still do to build the optimal result. The working group will be driving this forward and appreciate as much input and help as possible to see it through.
Community, AI and… Raclette
Tuesday focused on the rise of AI in development. Developers, including Brendan Gallagher (ByWater Solutions) and Arthur Suzuki (Biblibre) showcased how they’re using AI in development and in Koha with plugins. We helped establish community coding guidelines for AI-assisted contributions to ensure the codebase remains high-quality and ethically sound. Andrew worked hard on these and we managed to get them ratified later in the event.
Of course, the nights were just as productive as the days (in a different way!). From our “family dinner” at a local Italian spot to late-night Belgian beers and a massive community Raclette feast, the bonds we strengthened are what keep the Koha project moving forward.
Final sprints
By Friday, as the office began to empty, Martin, Jake B, and Chloé were the last ones standing. We spent the final hours poking Jenkins (our CI/CD tool) to make sure the builds were green and getting those final few bugs over the line.
We’re heading home exhausted but inspired. A huge thank you to Biblibre for hosting and to everyone in the community who shared a screen, a bug, or a beer with us this week.
See you on Bugzilla!
— The Open Fifth Team
Learn more about Koha, the open source library management software used in over 18,000 institutions globally.
Blog post featured image: Cyathea dealbata by Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz published under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
(Source: Wikimedia Commons)
