# bower/bower

A package manager for the web

Repository: https://github.com/bower/bower
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/bower
Language: JavaScript
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: bower, javascript, package-manager, front-end
Last push: 2024-10-13T10:45:05+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5109, "days_push": 689, "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 14911, forks 1800 (observed 2026-08-28T04:11:08.922005+00:00)

## What it is
Bower is a command-line package manager for front-end web dependencies, fetching packages over Git with a flat dependency tree and a registry. It is still maintained but the project itself recommends Yarn with webpack or Parcel for new projects.

## Use cases
- manage front-end dependencies like jquery via a CLI
- install browser libraries from a git-based registry
- pin specific versions of web components in bower.
- fetch any asset type (AMD, CommonJS, plain files) as a package
- maintain legacy projects that still use bower.

## When to choose
- maintaining an existing codebase that already uses Bower
- you need a package-agnostic manager for non-JS front-end assets
- your build tooling consumes Bower's dependency API

## When to avoid
- starting a new front-end project (use npm, yarn, or pnpm instead)
- you need modern module resolution or bundling integration
- you want an actively evolving ecosystem

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: maintenance
- function: package-manager, cli, developer-tools
- domain: web-development, frontend, developer-tools
- platform: cli, cross-platform
- tags: front-end, javascript, legacy, git-based-packages, command-line, nodejs

## Member repositories
- bower/bower (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:08.922005+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 2026-08-29T17:06:55.287272+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/bower/bower (fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:08.922005+00:00, sha 5474df97d347)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.