Hyland Open-Sources OpenArch to Connect Enterprise Content to AI

Hyland on November 10, 2026 introduced OpenArch, an open-source content hub designed to make unstructured enterprise content across repositories available to AI models, services and agents. The software is available immediately on GitHub under the Apache 2.0 license.

OpenArch is aimed at developers and AI architects working with content spread across repositories that have different structures, permissions and rules. It connects sources including Alfresco and Nuxeo to the AI stack a team chooses, while carrying metadata and access permissions into search and retrieval so results reflect what each user is already allowed to see.

A Governed Index Without a Second System of Record

OpenArch continuously builds a unified database containing content chunks, vectors used for semantic search, enterprise metadata and permissions from connected repositories. The AI-ready representation is stored in OpenArch, while original content and its governance remain in the source systems. Existing repositories remain authoritative; Hyland contrasts the architecture with a data lake because no second system of record is created.

Permissions are not rebuilt in a separate AI environment. On its OpenArch product page, Hyland says the software resolves user permissions dynamically at query time by calling source-repository APIs directly. Because OpenArch does not cache or duplicate security policies, access changes made in a source system apply immediately to AI queries, avoiding a separate authorization model that could drift from the authoritative system.

Hyland also distinguishes this standing index from point-to-point integrations and API gateways, which it describes as connecting one system to another, one connection at a time. OpenArch instead maintains a common governed index across connected repositories, giving AI applications a consolidated view without replacing the underlying systems.

Developer Interfaces and Deployment

The OpenArch repository lists Alfresco, Nuxeo and Microsoft SharePoint as examples of unstructured-data sources, describes integration with data-curation pipelines for storing metadata, chunks and vectors, and presents indexing over replication as a way to limit storage-cost growth. Its API-first design exposes that data to a team’s chosen large language models and AI services while respecting permissions during retrieval.

The search layer supports keyword queries, advanced queries with filters and semantic, or vector, search. A functional demonstration linked from the repository indexes content from Alfresco and Nuxeo, providing developers with an integration example.

Teams can self-manage OpenArch and choose where it runs, which AI services it uses and where their data resides. A Docker-based quick start is available, and Docker Compose supports deployment on cloud or on-premises servers, including behind an organization’s own firewall. Hyland’s product documentation says OpenArch works with AI services, large language models and development frameworks that support standard APIs, so teams can replace AI components as their architecture evolves.

Open-Source Scope and Platform Independence

OpenArch does not require Hyland’s Content Innovation Cloud to function, although the two can be integrated. The open-source foundation also lets developers inspect, extend, modify and operate the access layer directly rather than depend on proprietary code they cannot examine.

“With OpenArch, we’re not asking developers to migrate content, rebuild governance, or lock themselves into any one vendor’s stack to put AI to work,” said John Newton, Hyland’s chief innovation strategist. OpenArch follows Alfresco and Nuxeo in Hyland’s open-source history, with both earlier products now part of the company.

For development teams, the practical implication is a reusable content and permissions layer: AI applications can be built against one hub while repositories continue to own the content and enforce access, reducing the need to recreate repository connections and authorization logic as AI use expands.