# owenthereal/ccat

Colorizing `cat`

Repository: https://github.com/owenthereal/ccat
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/ccat
Homepage: https://github.com/owenthereal/ccat
Language: Go
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2022-09-05T17:44:40+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4137, "days_push": 1458, "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 3207, forks 120 (observed 2026-08-28T04:07:48.638756+00:00)

## What it is
ccat is a Go-based command-line tool that works like cat but displays file contents with syntax highlighting. It supports several languages, HTML output, custom color schemes, and runs as a single fast native binary.

## Use cases
- view source files with syntax highlighting in the terminal
- replace cat with a colorized version
- print code files with colors from the command line
- pipe curl output through a syntax highlighter
- generate HTML-highlighted versions of source files

## When to choose
- you want a fast, single-binary cat replacement with syntax highlighting
- you need minimal overhead over plain cat
- you want HTML output or customizable color codes

## When to avoid
- you need highlighting for languages beyond JavaScript, Java, Ruby, Python, Go, C, and JSON
- you want an actively developed tool with modern features like git integration
- you need a pager or advanced features offered by alternatives like bat

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: maintenance
- function: cli, developer-tools
- domain: developer-tools
- platform: windows, cli, go
- tags: cat, syntax-highlighting, terminal, colorized-output, command-line, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- owenthereal/ccat (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:48.638756+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 2026-08-30T07:24:45.800994+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/owenthereal/ccat (fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:48.638756+00:00, sha 7df53720babb)
  - homepage: https://github.com/owenthereal/ccat (fetched 2026-08-29T09:38:14.962439+00:00, sha 75baf6f40e15)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.