# ActiveState/appdirs

A small Python module for determining appropriate platform-specific dirs, e.g. a "user data dir".

Repository: https://github.com/ActiveState/appdirs
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/appdirs
Homepage: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/appdirs
Language: Python
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2023-02-10T23:42:40+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5880, "days_push": 1300, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1079, forks 98 (observed 2026-08-28T04:03:30.314920+00:00)

## What it is
A small Python module for determining appropriate platform-specific directories, such as user data, config, cache, and log dirs, across macOS, Windows, and Linux. It is a single-file library that has been officially deprecated in favor of the actively maintained platformdirs fork.

## Use cases
- find the correct user data directory for my app on any OS
- get platform-specific config and cache directories in Python
- store application logs in the right location per platform
- follow XDG base directory spec on Linux
- determine roaming vs local appdata paths on Windows

## When to choose
- you maintain a legacy codebase already depending on appdirs
- you need a tiny single-module dependency you can vendor privately

## When to avoid
- starting a new project - use platformdirs instead
- you need ongoing bug fixes or new platform support
- you need anything beyond directory path resolution

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: abandoned
- function: file-system, configuration-management
- domain: developer-tools, cross-platform, operating-systems
- platform: python, cross-platform, windows
- tags: app-directories, xdg, deprecated, user-data-dir, macos, linux

## Member repositories
- ActiveState/appdirs (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:30.314920+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T06:53:01.284313+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/ActiveState/appdirs (fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:30.314920+00:00, sha d28a30cb26a3)
  - homepage: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/appdirs (fetched 2026-08-29T12:54:12.679766+00:00, sha 1bd82996857a)
  - registry_pypi: https://pypi.org/pypi/appdirs/json (fetched 2026-08-29T12:54:12.688711+00:00, sha 006641433802)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.