# ccrma/chuck

ChucK Music Programming Language

Repository: https://github.com/ccrma/chuck
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/ccrma-chuck
Homepage: http://chuck.stanford.edu/
Language: C++
License: GPL-2.0
License Family: copyleft
Topics: chuck, audio, language, music, programming, strongly-timed
Last push: 2026-07-10T19:10:37+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 73/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 91, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4493, "days_push": 54, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1038, forks 147 (observed 2026-08-28T04:03:19.629150+00:00)

## What it is
ChucK is an open-source, strongly-timed programming language for real-time sound synthesis and music creation, with a unique time-based concurrent model and on-the-fly code modification. It ships as a CLI tool and runtime supporting MIDI, OSC, HID, and multi-channel audio, with ports to browsers, Unity, and other environments.

## Use cases
- write real-time audio synthesis programs
- live code music performances
- build interactive music installations
- teach audio programming to musicians
- prototype sound algorithms with precise timing
- generate music with AI tools in ChAI

## When to choose
- you need precise, sample-accurate timing in audio code
- you want live/on-the-fly modification of running synthesis code
- you are teaching or learning real-time audio programming
- you need MIDI, OSC, and multi-channel audio in one language

## When to avoid
- you need a general-purpose language for non-audio tasks
- you want a visual patching environment like Pure Data or Max/MSP
- you need commercial-friendly licensing (GPL-2.0)
- you require a large ecosystem of third-party libraries

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: active
- function: programming-language, interpreter, audio-processing, speech-recognition
- domain: programming-languages, media, education
- platform: windows, cli, browser, cross-platform
- tags: sound-synthesis, strongly-timed, live-coding, music, midi, osc, real-time-audio, computer-music, audio, macos, linux

## Member repositories
- ccrma/chuck (main) score 73

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:19.629150+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 2026-08-30T07:04:14.848276+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/ccrma/chuck (fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:19.629150+00:00, sha 78f2f55f7d45)
  - homepage: http://chuck.stanford.edu/ (fetched 2026-08-29T13:04:54.727133+00:00, sha 27862b8c0209)
  - site_page: https://chuck.stanford.edu/doc (fetched 2026-08-29T13:04:54.729660+00:00, sha 1db5e577e668)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.