# bowser-js/bowser

a browser detector

Repository: https://github.com/bowser-js/bowser
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/bowser
Homepage: http://bowser-js.github.io/bowser/
Language: JavaScript
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Topics: javascript, detect-browsers, browser-detector, browser, user-agent-parser, browser-detection, os-detection, device-detection, useragent, useragentparser
Last push: 2026-08-01T18:28:58+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 87/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 95, release rhythm 69, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5607, "days_push": 32, "days_rel": 206, "gap_med": 13, "n_releases_24m": 6}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 5750, forks 487 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:29.006888+00:00)

## What it is
Bowser is a small, fast JavaScript library for detecting browser, platform, and engine from user agent strings, with support for User-Agent Client Hints. It works in both browser and Node.js environments and provides a rich API for parsing and filtering user agents.

## Use cases
- detect which browser a user is on
- parse user agent strings in javascript
- get browser name and version from useragent
- detect operating system and device from user agent
- filter users by browser capabilities
- use user-agent client hints for browser detection
- check if user is on internet explorer or safari

## When to choose
- you need a lightweight (~5kB gzipped) browser detection library
- you need detection working in both browser and Node.js
- you want a rich API for filtering users by browser, OS, or engine
- you want support for User-Agent Client Hints

## When to avoid
- you need server-side device intelligence from real device databases
- you rely solely on user agent parsing in modern browsers where client hints are frozen or reduced
- you need bot/crawler detection

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: parser, developer-tools
- domain: web-development, frontend, developer-tools
- platform: browser, cross-platform
- tags: user-agent-parser, browser-detection, os-detection, device-detection, client-hints, javascript, nodejs

## Member repositories
- bowser-js/bowser (main) score 87

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:29.006888+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 2026-08-29T17:53:18.461286+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/bowser-js/bowser (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:29.006888+00:00, sha 576f84339c69)
  - homepage: http://bowser-js.github.io/bowser/ (fetched 2026-08-29T08:48:50.496218+00:00, sha 1730c7a4a1ad)
  - registry_npm: https://registry.npmjs.org/bowser (fetched 2026-08-29T08:48:50.505224+00:00, sha 45092301c057)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.