Public Catalog
The Public Catalog at /catalog is the open, community-facing index of OSCAL Hub. It lists every library item whose visibility is set to Public and is fully accessible without an account. No login required to search, filter, sort, or read the detail page for any item.
If you have ever wanted a single place to find reference catalogs, approved baselines, or example SSPs contributed by the OSCAL community, this is it.
What it shows
The Public Catalog only surfaces items that a library owner has explicitly set to Public visibility. Private and Organization-scoped items are never listed here, regardless of who is browsing.
For each listed item the catalog shows:
- Title and description — as entered by the author
- OSCAL type badge —
catalog,profile,ssp,component-definition,ap,ar, orpoam - Tags — up to four tags shown on the card, with an overflow count for the rest
- Star rating — average rating and total number of ratings
- Download count — how many times the item has been downloaded
- Current version number — version of the most recent save
Filtering and sorting
The catalog provides four controls at the top of the page:
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Keyword search | Searches item title and description |
| Type filter | Narrows results to one OSCAL model type |
| Tag filter | Narrows results to items tagged with a specific value |
| Sort | Orders results by Newest, Most downloaded, or Top rated |
All four filters are live — the list updates as you type or change a selection. Use the Previous / Next pagination buttons at the bottom to move through large result sets (24 items per page).
Detail page
Clicking any card navigates to /catalog/[itemId] — the full detail page for that item. The detail page shows:
- Full title, description, author username, and creation date
- All tags
- Complete version history (version number, upload date, file name)
- Star rating widget (requires sign-in to rate)
- Comments section (requires sign-in to comment)
- Download button — see the note below about sign-in for downloads
Sign-in for downloads
Browsing and reading the catalog is fully anonymous. Downloading requires a signed-in account.
This is an intentional design decision. Requiring a sign-in for downloads lets the platform:
- Attribute downloads to a user for analytics (so the "Most downloaded" leaderboard is accurate)
- Apply per-user rate limiting to prevent bulk scraping
- Maintain an audit trail of who downloaded what and when
If you click Download on the detail page without being signed in, you will be redirected to the login page. After signing in (or creating a free account) you will be returned to the detail page and the download will proceed.
How content gets into the catalog
Any logged-in user can contribute to the Public Catalog. The path is:
- Build or upload an OSCAL document (via
/buildor the Upload tab at/library). - Click Save to Library and set visibility to Public.
The item appears in the catalog immediately. For details on the Save to Library flow, see Save to Library. For the full visibility rules, see Library Visibility.
Tips
- Start with the type filter. If you are looking for a specific kind of document (e.g., a
catalogor aprofile), selecting the type first gives you a much tighter result set than keyword search alone. - Sort by "Most downloaded" to find proven reference content. Items with high download counts have been useful to many people — a useful signal for picking a starting point.
- Check the version number. The current version number on the card and detail page tells you whether the author actively maintains the item. A high version number generally indicates ongoing updates.
- Rate and comment after signing in. Community ratings help everyone quickly identify high-quality reference content. If you found an item useful, logging in and giving it a star takes 10 seconds and helps the next person.
Public Catalog items are contributed by the community and are not reviewed or endorsed by OSCAL Hub or NIST. Always validate any document you download before using it in a compliance workflow. Use the Validate tool at /validate or the validation step inside a Build wizard.