diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
index a74f4d3..586db29 100644
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
 [submodule "external/pybind11"]
 	path = external/pybind11
 	url = https://github.com/pybind/pybind11
+[submodule "external/libcatalogs"]
+	path = external/libcatalogs
+	url = https://hephaistos.lpp.polytechnique.fr/rhodecode/HG_REPOSITORIES/LPP/SciQLOP_Repos/libcatalogs
diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 5398b04..1cdf32f 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ OPTION (CPPCHECK "Analyzes the source code with cppcheck" OFF)
 OPTION (CLANG_TIDY "Analyzes the source code with Clang Tidy" OFF)
 OPTION (IWYU "Analyzes the source code with Include What You Use" OFF)
 
-OPTION (Catalog "builds catalog API" OFF)
+OPTION (Catalog "builds catalog API" ON)
 
 set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 17)
 
@@ -27,6 +27,13 @@ if (NOT pybind11_FOUND)
     add_subdirectory(external/pybind11)
 endif()
 
+find_package(catalogs CONFIG QUIET)
+if (NOT CatalogueAPI_FOUND)
+    execute_process(COMMAND git submodule init external/libcatalogs WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR})
+    execute_process(COMMAND git submodule update external/libcatalogs WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR})
+    add_subdirectory(external/libcatalogs)
+endif()
+
 macro(declare_test testname testexe sources libraries)
     add_executable(${testexe} ${sources})
     target_link_libraries(${testexe} ${libraries})
diff --git a/external/libcatalogs b/external/libcatalogs
new file mode 160000
index 0000000..f2fa281
--- /dev/null
+++ b/external/libcatalogs
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Subproject commit f2fa281306099e7136a288dd70fd97d0e33afa15