sharkdp/bat
Some data may be outdated — see provenance labels.
A cat(1) clone with wings. observed · 2026-09-28
Health v2 · maintenance only
73/100
- Activity 96
- Release rhythm 28
- Longevity 100
How is this computed?
round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10) — computed 2026-10-21. Adoption (stars, forks) is never an input.
- gap_med: 164.0
- age_days: 3104
- days_rel: 322
- days_push: 28
- n_releases_24m: 3
Adoption not part of the score
60592 stars · 2810 forks observed · 2026-09-28
What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-29, confidence not recorded
bat is a cat(1) clone written in Rust that adds syntax highlighting for many languages and Git integration to terminal file viewing. It supports automatic paging, showing non-printable characters, and works as a drop-in cat replacement when piping.
Use cases
- view files in the terminal with syntax highlighting
- replace cat with a prettier alternative
- see git diff markers when viewing files
- highlight output piped from stdin
- show non-printable characters in files
- concatenate files like cat
When to choose
- you want readable, highlighted file output in the terminal
- you need a fast, modern cat replacement with git awareness
- you frequently view code or config files from the command line
When to avoid
- you need byte-exact cat behavior in scripts without any formatting
- you work in environments where installing extra tools is not possible
- you need a full pager or file editor rather than a viewer
Facets
cli-tool · maturity stable
cli developer-tools developer-tools windows cli cross-platform cat-clone syntax-highlighting git-integration terminal pager rust command-line linux macos
2 sources
- readme: https://github.com/sharkdp/bat · fetched 2026-09-28 · 1a2cac1c993f
- registry_crates: https://crates.io/api/v1/crates/bat · fetched 2026-09-07 · f013c6e28480
Member repositories
| Repository | Role | Health v2 |
|---|---|---|
| sharkdp/bat | main | 73 |
For agents
Data as of 2026-10-19T08:05:51.212177+00:00 · Report a problem