# piuccio/cowsay

cowsay is a configurable talking cow

Repository: https://github.com/piuccio/cowsay
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/cowsay
Language: JavaScript
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Last push: 2024-09-24T07:32:35+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5043, "days_push": 708, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- 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 1311, forks 179 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:19.987190+00:00)

## What it is
cowsay is a JavaScript port of the classic Perl cowsay program that generates ASCII art of a cow (or other characters) saying or thinking a message. It works as a command-line tool and as an npm module, including in the browser via bundlers.

## Use cases
- print a talking cow in the terminal
- add fun ASCII art output to CLI tools
- generate cowthink messages from a script
- use cowsay as an npm dependency in node.js
- render cowsay output in the browser
- pipe text from stdin into a cow speech bubble

## When to choose
- you want the classic cowsay experience in node.js or the terminal
- you need a programmable ASCII speech bubble generator as a library
- you want a lightweight fun easter egg for your CLI

## When to avoid
- you need serious text formatting or banner generation like figlet
- your project has no tolerance for novelty dependencies
- you need a non-JavaScript environment

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: stable
- function: cli, developer-tools, templating
- domain: developer-tools, entertainment
- platform: cli, cross-platform, browser
- tags: ascii-art, fun, cowsay, npm-package, javascript, command-line, nodejs

## Member repositories
- piuccio/cowsay (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:19.987190+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 2026-08-30T04:49:51.585174+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/piuccio/cowsay (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:19.987190+00:00, sha 5bc514dbc814)
  - registry_npm: https://registry.npmjs.org/cowsay (fetched 2026-08-29T12:08:08.352815+00:00, sha 20b27900d8d3)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.