# speced/bikeshed

:bike: A preprocessor for anyone writing specifications that converts source files into actual specs.

Repository: https://github.com/speced/bikeshed
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/bikeshed
Homepage: https://speced.github.io/bikeshed
Language: HTML
License: CC0-1.0
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2026-08-21T23:01:51+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 67/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 98, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4937, "days_push": 12, "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 1320, forks 220 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:21.802264+00:00)

## What it is
Bikeshed is a preprocessor for writing technical specification documents, converting lightly-decorated Markdown/HTML source files into full spec documents with boilerplate, bibliographies, indexes, and cross-spec autolinking. It is used by W3C working groups, WHATWG, and other standards bodies.

## Use cases
- generate a W3C or WHATWG specification from a Markdown source file
- automatically link terms in a spec to their definitions across specs
- generate boilerplate, table of contents, and indexes for a standards document
- syntax-check and process Web IDL blocks in a spec
- generate railroad diagrams for grammar productions
- write a spec with automatic heading IDs and bibliography references

## When to choose
- you are authoring a web standards or W3C/WHATWG-style specification
- you need cross-specification autolinking and automatic reference management
- you want boilerplate, indexes, and IDL processing generated automatically

## When to avoid
- you are writing general documentation rather than a formal specification
- you need a simple static site generator without spec-specific conventions
- you are not working in a standards-writing context

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: active
- function: documentation, markdown, templating, parser
- domain: documentation, web-development, developer-tools, apis
- platform: python, cli, cross-platform
- tags: specifications, w3c, whatwg, standards, preprocessor, autolinking, html-generation, web-server

## Member repositories
- speced/bikeshed (main) score 67

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:21.802264+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 2026-08-30T04:47:51.658549+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/speced/bikeshed (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:21.802264+00:00, sha ec36b80c7cf0)
  - homepage: https://speced.github.io/bikeshed (fetched 2026-08-29T12:06:21.483088+00:00, sha 81cb60fd52cc)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.