# paulmillr/chokidar

Minimal and efficient cross-platform file watching library

Repository: https://github.com/paulmillr/chokidar
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/chokidar
Homepage: https://paulmillr.com
Language: TypeScript
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: watch-files, fsevents, watcher, filesystem, chokidar, nodejs
Last push: 2026-08-16T15:34:26+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 80/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 98, release rhythm 46, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5248, "days_push": 17, "days_rel": 281, "gap_med": 47.0, "n_releases_24m": 5}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 12225, forks 631 (observed 2026-08-28T04:10:52.066927+00:00)

## What it is
Chokidar is a minimal and efficient cross-platform file watching library for Node.js. It normalizes raw fs.watch/fs.watchFile events into reliable add/change/unlink events, supporting atomic writes, chunked writes, filtering, symlinks, and recursive watching.

## Use cases
- watch files and directories for changes in nodejs
- trigger build tasks when source files change
- detect when files are added or deleted in a folder
- watch config files and reload on change
- monitor log files for new content
- normalize inconsistent fs.watch events across macos linux and windows

## When to choose
- you need reliable cross-platform file change events in Node.js
- raw fs.watch gives duplicate or useless rename events
- you need recursive watching, symlink support, or atomic write handling
- you want a battle-tested library used in millions of repositories

## When to avoid
- you need glob-based watch patterns (removed in v4)
- you are on Node.js older than v20 (v5 is ESM-only)
- you need file watching outside the Node.js runtime
- you only need simple polling and want zero dependencies

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: file-system, developer-tools
- domain: developer-tools, files, cross-platform
- platform: cross-platform
- tags: file-watching, fsevents, watcher, esm, npm, nodejs

## Member repositories
- paulmillr/chokidar (main) score 80

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:52.066927+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 2026-08-29T17:14:15.716765+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/paulmillr/chokidar (fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:52.066927+00:00, sha 7a40fa33ddf6)
  - homepage: https://paulmillr.com (fetched 2026-08-29T08:12:07.540863+00:00, sha 83a0dd5ec1a8)
  - registry_npm: https://registry.npmjs.org/chokidar (fetched 2026-08-29T08:12:07.549988+00:00, sha 87611a15141e)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.