# cinder/Cinder

Cinder is a community-developed, free and open source library for professional-quality creative coding in C++.

Repository: https://github.com/cinder/Cinder
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/cinder
Homepage: http://libcinder.org
Language: C++
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Last push: 2026-03-20T22:35:41+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 61/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 73, release rhythm 22, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5978, "days_push": 166, "days_rel": 304, "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 5536, forks 964 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:22.065252+00:00)

## What it is
Cinder is a free, open-source C++ library for professional-quality creative coding, covering graphics, audio, video, and computational geometry. It is cross-platform (macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS) and production-proven for both professional work and experimentation.

## Use cases
- build interactive graphics installations in C++
- prototype audio-visual creative coding projects
- render 2D and 3D graphics with OpenGL
- process and play audio and video media
- create computational geometry and generative art applications
- build cross-platform creative apps for macOS, Windows, and iOS

## When to choose
- you want a production-proven C++ creative coding toolkit with OpenGL, media, and math built in
- you need cross-platform support including macOS, Windows, Linux, and iOS
- you prefer idiomatic modern C++ with a peer-reviewed library design

## When to avoid
- you want a scripting-friendly environment like Processing or openFrameworks' larger ecosystem
- you need a game engine with built-in physics, ECS, or asset pipelines
- your project is not in C++ or requires a C++20 toolchain you cannot adopt

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: graphics, audio-processing, video-processing, gui, image-processing, math, parser, animation
- domain: graphics, media, cross-platform, simulation
- platform: windows, cpp, cross-platform
- tags: creative-coding, opengl, computational-geometry, multimedia, interactive-installations, bsd-license, game-development, macos, linux, ios

## Member repositories
- cinder/Cinder (main) score 61

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:22.065252+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 2026-08-29T17:55:43.558926+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/cinder/Cinder (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:22.065252+00:00, sha dd04ff47922d)
  - homepage: http://libcinder.org (fetched 2026-08-29T08:51:11.179459+00:00, sha 6dc234fddb02)
  - site_page: https://libcinder.org/about (fetched 2026-08-29T08:51:11.181869+00:00, sha 7e848adcfd3f)
  - site_page: https://libcinder.org/docs (fetched 2026-08-29T08:51:11.183778+00:00, sha b187d32ee6e6)
  - site_page: https://libcinder.org/docs/guides/git/index.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:51:11.185332+00:00, sha 1558f7cefc1f)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.