# aria2/aria2

aria2 is a lightweight multi-protocol & multi-source, cross platform download utility operated in command-line. It supports HTTP/HTTPS, FTP, SFTP, BitTorrent and Metalink.

Repository: https://github.com/aria2/aria2
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/aria2
Homepage: https://aria2.github.io/
Language: C++
License: GPL-2.0
License Family: copyleft
Topics: cpp11, http, ftp, sftp, bittorrent, rpc, download, metalink
Last push: 2026-06-25T14:49:35+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 63/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 89, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5758, "days_push": 69, "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 41833, forks 3892 (observed 2026-08-28T04:12:08.690059+00:00)

## What it is
aria2 is a lightweight, cross-platform command-line download utility supporting HTTP/HTTPS, FTP, SFTP, BitTorrent, and Metalink with multi-source, multi-connection downloading. It can be controlled remotely via built-in JSON-RPC (HTTP/WebSocket) and XML-RPC interfaces.

## Use cases
- download files from http and ftp at maximum speed
- segmented multi-connection downloading of large iso files
- download torrents and magnet links from the command line
- fetch a file from multiple mirrors simultaneously
- run a headless download daemon controlled via rpc
- validate downloads with metalink chunk checksums

## When to choose
- you need fast, scriptable downloads from many protocols in one tool
- you want a lightweight headless downloader with remote RPC control
- you need BitTorrent and HTTP/FTP downloading combined in one process

## When to avoid
- you prefer a graphical download manager or torrent client
- you only need simple one-off downloads where curl or wget suffice

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: stable
- function: http-client, rpc, cli
- domain: developer-tools, networking
- platform: windows, cross-platform, cli, cpp
- tags: download-manager, bittorrent, metalink, ftp, sftp, segmented-downloading, json-rpc, command-line, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- aria2/aria2 (main) score 63

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:12:08.690059+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 2026-08-29T16:22:54.350750+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/aria2/aria2 (fetched 2026-08-28T04:12:08.690059+00:00, sha 77ed852ef4bd)
  - homepage: https://aria2.github.io/ (fetched 2026-08-29T07:46:09.951457+00:00, sha 66d4dd66c76d)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.