# nicklockwood/AutoCoding

AutoCoding is a category on NSObject that provides automatic support for NSCoding and NSCopying to every object.

Repository: https://github.com/nicklockwood/AutoCoding
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/autocoding
Language: Objective-C
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Last push: 2017-10-26T08:42:15+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5320, "days_push": 3233, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases, no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1063, forks 132 (observed 2026-08-28T04:03:26.298215+00:00)

## What it is
AutoCoding is an Objective-C category on NSObject that automatically implements NSCoding (including NSSecureCoding) for any object, eliminating the need to write initWithCoder: and encodeWithCoder: methods manually. It also supports saving and loading objects to files and offers optional NSCopying support.

## Use cases
- persist model objects to disk without writing NSCoding boilerplate
- add NSSecureCoding support to existing classes automatically
- save and load object graphs from files in an iOS or macOS app
- make legacy Objective-C classes serializable with minimal code changes
- protect against object-substitution attacks when decoding archived data

## When to choose
- you maintain an older Objective-C codebase that relies on NSKeyedArchiver serialization
- you want automatic NSCoding/NSSecureCoding conformance without per-class boilerplate
- you need thread-safe, secure serialization for Apple-platform model objects

## When to avoid
- you are starting a new project and can use Swift Codable or other modern serialization
- your model classes rely on non-NSCoding-compliant structs or Core Data managed objects with special copying needs
- you need actively maintained software with recent updates

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: maintenance
- function: serialization, security
- domain: developer-tools, mobile-development, desktop-applications
- platform: -
- tags: objective-c, nscoding, nscopying, nssecurecoding, object-categorization, apple-platforms, ios, macos

## Member repositories
- nicklockwood/AutoCoding (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:26.298215+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 2026-08-30T06:56:40.092195+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/nicklockwood/AutoCoding (fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:26.298215+00:00, sha 0c600f083951)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.