jashkenas/backbone
Give your JS App some Backbone with Models, Views, Collections, and Events observed · 2026-08-28
Health v2 · maintenance only
75/100
- Activity 95
- Release rhythm 35
- Longevity 100
Flags: no_releases
How is this computed?
round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10) — computed 2026-09-03. Adoption (stars, forks) is never an input.
- gap_med: n/a
- age_days: 5816
- days_rel: n/a
- days_push: 35
- n_releases_24m: 0
Adoption not part of the score
28100 stars · 5279 forks observed · 2026-08-28
What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-29, confidence not recorded
Backbone.js is a lightweight JavaScript library that gives structure to web applications by providing Models with key-value binding and custom events, Collections with a rich enumerable API, Views with declarative event handling, and Routers, all connected over a RESTful JSON interface. It was one of the original MVC-style frameworks for JavaScript-heavy single-page apps and remains small, dependency-light (Underscore, optionally jQuery), and stable.
Use cases
- structure a JavaScript-heavy single-page application with models and views
- bind client-side models to a RESTful JSON backend
- manage collections of records with sorting, filtering, and fetching
- add client-side routing and history to a web app
- maintain or extend a legacy Backbone codebase
- build a lightweight app without a heavy framework like React or Angular
When to choose
- you want a tiny, unopinionated MVC layer over plain JavaScript and jQuery
- your app talks to a RESTful JSON API and needs models, collections, and routing
- you are maintaining an existing Backbone application
- you prefer explicit, imperative code over a reactive component framework
When to avoid
- you are starting a new modern frontend project - React, Vue, or Svelte have far larger ecosystems
- you want reactive data binding, virtual DOM rendering, or a component-based architecture
- you need TypeScript-first tooling and modern build integration
- you expect frequent updates and new features - the project is in maintenance mode
Facets
library · maturity maintenance
state-management routing frontend-framework middleware web-development frontend browser cross-platform mvc models collections views restful-json events spa underscore jquery legacy-javascript javascript nodejs
5 sources
- readme: https://github.com/jashkenas/backbone · fetched 2026-08-28 · 0aa06711005a
- homepage: http://backbonejs.org · fetched 2026-08-29 · 795adb922fba
- site_page: http://backbonejs.org/docs/backbone.html · fetched 2026-08-29 · e8a849f6c8cf
- site_page: http://backbonejs.org/docs/examples/todos/todos.html · fetched 2026-08-29 · 2fd87b2d581b
- registry_npm: https://registry.npmjs.org/backbone · fetched 2026-08-29 · fac44363547e
Member repositories
| Repository | Role | Health v2 |
|---|---|---|
| jashkenas/backbone | main | 75 |
For agents
markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="jashkenas/backbone")
Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00 · Report a problem