liiive: Collaborative Annotation for IIIF Images

liiive is an open-source, web-based tool for real-time collaborative annotation of IIIF images.

Explore visual materials like artworks, manuscripts, maps, or historical documents together–live, in the browser–with shared cursors, synchronized annotations, and rich-text comments.

Contents

1. Overview
2. Key Features
3. Try liiive
4. Deployment Options
5. Self-Hosting Guide
6. Non-Goals
7. Contributing
8. License
9. Supporters

1. Overview

liiive is a browser-based collaboration tool for exploring and annotating digital images together, in real time. Built on the IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework) standard, it's designed for researchers, educators, students, and cultural heritage professionals working with high-resolution images.

2. Key Features

• Real-time collaborative annotation
  Multiple users can view and annotate IIIF images simultaneously, with low-latency synchronization.

• Live presence and awareness
  See other users' cursors in real time, and view collaborator activity directly in the navigation thumbnail strip.

• Annotation tools
  Create region-based annotations using rectangle, polygon, circle/ellipse, and path drawing tools.

• Smart scissors drawing tool
  A Photoshop-style "magnetic lasso" that snaps to object edges as you move your cursor, making it easy to outline complex shapes with minimal clicks.

• Permanent and temporary collaboration spaces
  Create ad-hoc rooms for short-lived sessions that are deleted automatically after a set time, or persistent spaces with permanent annotation storage.

• Annotation export
  Download annotations in standard, IIIF-compatible format for reuse, archival, or further analysis.

• Publishing via derivative manifests
  Permanent rooms publish a IIIF v3 manifest at a stable, live URL, making annotations viewable in external viewers like Theseus, Universal Viewer, or Mirador.

3. Try liiive

The easiest way to try liiive – no installation needed – is via the public hosted service at liiive.now, which runs the same open-source codebase provided in this repository.

1. Paste any URL to a IIIF Presentation or Image manifest in the search box
2. Hit the 'Go liiive' button
3. Share your unique room link with others
4. Collaborate instantly – even without a login

4. Deployment Options

liiive can be used in three ways:

4.1 Public Hosted Service (liiive.now)

The public hosted service at liiive.now is the fastest way to get started – no setup required. It offers unlimited free basic accounts, with an optional paid plan for additional storage. Built on the same open-source codebase, it provides a ready-to-use solution for workshops, teaching, and everyday use.

4.2 Self-Hosting (This Repository)

For full freedom and independence, you can deploy liiive on your own server using this repository. Self-hosting gives you:

• Complete ownership of your data and storage
• Custom domain configuration
• Independent infrastructure

See the Self-Hosting Guide below to get started.

4.3 Managed hosting

If your institution or project doesn't have in-house IT support or server infrastructure, managed hosting offers a dedicated, privately hosted liiive instance – optionally with custom branding or domain – without the overhead of having to set up and manage a server yourself.

Managed hosting includes:

• Deployment and server management
• Updates and ongoing maintenance
• Priority technical support

Subscriptions directly support the continued development and maintenance of liiive as an open-source project. For pricing or to discuss your project requirements, contact hello@rainersimon.io.

5. Self-Hosting Guide

liiive can be self-hosted in two modes: as a local development setup intended for frontend development, and a fully containerized production deployment for institutional or public use.

5.1 Prerequisites

To deploy liiive, ensure you have the following installed:

• Docker 24.0+ and Docker Compose 2.x
• Node.js 20+ and npm (for development deployment only)

5.2 Development Deployment

The development setup is intended for developers working on the liiive client, with hot reloading and local backend.

In development mode, the Supabase backend and admin UI ("Supabase Studio") as well as the liiive WebSocket server run in Docker and are exposed on different localhost ports.

The full deployment guide is available here: development deployment

5.3 Production Deployment

The production deployment is a fully containerized setup for a Linux/Docker host, with all service components:

• Supabase backend (database, auth, storage)
• Supabase Studio (backend admin UI, optional)
• liiive WebSocket server
• liiive client application
• Traefik reverse proxy

Requirements:

• Your own Linux production server
• Your own registered domain name
• Multiple subdomains, for example:
  • app.example.org – frontend
  • ws.example.org – WebSocket server
  • api.example.org – backend API
  • studio.example.org – Supabase Studio admin UI (optional)

The full deployment guide is available here: production deployment

6. Non-Goals

liiive is not intended to be:

• A general-purpose IIIF viewer
• A digital asset management system
• A replacement for long-term annotation repositories

7. Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please use the issue tracker to discuss major changes or new features before submitting a pull request.

8. License

liiive is licensed under the terms of the MIT License.

For convenience, this repository includes Docker configuration for the Supabase backend. Supabase is licensed under the Apache 2 License.

9. Supporters

Thanks to the following supporters for funding parts of this work:

• Department of Digital Humanities, University of Graz, Project DHInfra.at, funded through programme (Digitale) Forschungsinfrastruktur

If you want to become a supporter, please contact me at hello@rainersimon.io.