# Carthage/Carthage

A simple, decentralized dependency manager for Cocoa

Repository: https://github.com/Carthage/Carthage
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/carthage
Language: Swift
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Topics: cocoa, carthage, swift, package-manager
Last push: 2025-09-10T15:36:04+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 41/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 41, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4345, "days_push": 357, "days_rel": 723, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 1}
- 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 15166, forks 1549 (observed 2026-08-28T04:11:09.302645+00:00)

## What it is
Carthage is a decentralized dependency manager for Cocoa (iOS, macOS, tvOS, watchOS) projects written in Swift. It builds dependencies into binary frameworks (including XCFrameworks) without modifying your Xcode project files or build settings.

## Use cases
- add third-party frameworks to an iOS app without CocoaPods integration
- build dependencies into prebuilt binary frameworks for Xcode
- manage Cocoa dependencies in a decentralized way with a Cartfile
- build platform-independent XCFrameworks for Apple platforms
- cache and reuse framework builds to speed up CI

## When to choose
- you want a simple, decentralized dependency manager that doesn't touch your Xcode project
- you prefer prebuilt binary frameworks over source integration
- you need XCFramework support for Xcode 12+
- your project already uses Carthage and you want to keep the workflow

## When to avoid
- starting a new project where Swift Package Manager is sufficient
- you need automatic project file integration and workspace management like CocoaPods
- you depend on frameworks that no longer ship Carthage-compatible prebuilt binaries

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: maintenance
- function: package-manager, build-tool, cli
- domain: developer-tools, apple-ecosystem, mobile-development
- platform: cli
- tags: cocoa, swift, ios, dependency-management, xcframework, macos

## Member repositories
- Carthage/Carthage (main) score 41

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:09.302645+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 2026-08-29T17:06:35.147009+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/Carthage/Carthage (fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:09.302645+00:00, sha d4873f9bbc96)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.