WorshipCommons Content is the song library behind worshipcommons.org. One folder per song: the words, the rights, and the files a church downloads. Public-domain hymns and songs writers chose to share.
A service of ChurchApps. The website that reads this library is WorshipCommons.
Each song is a folder, songs/<language>/<slug>-<id>/.
| Path | What it is |
|---|---|
song.json |
Title, writer, key, and the license. A person edits this on purpose |
sources/ |
Lyrics, scores, and other files the tools cannot rebuild |
output/ |
Charts and audio the tools rebuild. Not stored in git |
writers/ holds portraits and bios shared across songs. catalog.json is the generated index. licenses/ is the full text of each grant.
The rules — what you may edit, how a translation inherits a tune, how to add a song — are in the library guide.
One license per song, named in song.json, not in the folder path. Full terms: LICENSE.md.
license |
In short |
|---|---|
PD |
Public domain in the United States (best-effort). Other countries may differ |
WC |
Free for worship. Commercial rights stay with the writer |
CC-BY, CC-BY-SA, CC-BY-NC, CC-BY-NC-SA |
Creative Commons, as the writer applied it |
No no-derivatives licenses. Transposing, arranging, and translating are the point. Tools and docs in this repo are MIT.
The only reason this program is free is because of the generous support from users. If you want to support us to keep this free, please head over to ChurchApps or sponsor us on GitHub. Thank you so much!
We have a great community for end-users on Facebook. It's a good way to ask questions, get tips and follow new updates. Come join us!
If you discover an issue or have a feature request, simply submit it to our issues log. Don't be shy, that's how the program gets better. A song you believe is included in error: same place, and we will review it.
If you would like to contribute in any way, head over to our Slack Channel and introduce yourself. We'd love to hear from you.
There is no install step. Node.js 18 or newer can check the library:
node tools/validate.mjsEditing a song, rebuilding charts, and the rest of the commands are in the library guide.