# fxamacker/cbor

CBOR codec (RFC 8949, RFC 8742) with CBOR tags, Go struct tag options (toarray, keyasint, omitempty, omitzero), float64/32/16, big.Int, and fuzz tested.

Repository: https://github.com/fxamacker/cbor
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/cbor
Language: Go
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: cbor, rfc-8949, cose, cwt, go, golang, json-alternative, serialization, cbor-library, std-94, codec, tinygo, rfc-8742
Last push: 2026-08-30T19:36:50+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 91/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 100, release rhythm 74, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2667, "days_push": 3, "days_rel": 16, "gap_med": 105, "n_releases_24m": 6}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1081, forks 82 (observed 2026-09-01T02:14:01.698943+00:00)

## What it is
A Go library for encoding and decoding CBOR (RFC 8949) and CBOR Sequences (RFC 8742) with full conformance to the IETF standard. It supports CBOR tags, deterministic encoding, Go struct tag options, big integers, and is fuzz tested.

## Use cases
- encode and decode CBOR data in Go
- serialize Go structs to binary CBOR format
- parse CBOR sequences per RFC 8742
- implement COSE or CWT protocols
- replace JSON with a compact binary format
- produce deterministic CBOR encodings for signing
- decode CBOR with big integer and float16 support

## When to choose
- you need a standards-compliant CBOR codec in Go
- you need deterministic encoding for cryptographic signatures
- you want a fuzz-tested, widely adopted serialization library
- you target TinyGo or constrained environments

## When to avoid
- you need human-readable formats like JSON or YAML
- your project is not in Go
- you need schema-based code generation like Protocol Buffers

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: serialization, parser
- domain: developer-tools, apis, files
- platform: go, cross-platform
- tags: cbor, rfc-8949, codec, binary-format, -alternative, cose, cwt, tinygo

## Member repositories
- fxamacker/cbor (main) score 91

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-09-01T02:14:01.698943+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 2026-08-30T06:51:21.755595+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/fxamacker/cbor (fetched 2026-09-01T02:14:01.698943+00:00, sha 26f217ea2031)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.