# digitalbazaar/forge

A native implementation of TLS in Javascript and tools to write crypto-based and network-heavy webapps

Repository: https://github.com/digitalbazaar/forge
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/digitalbazaar-forge
Homepage: https://digitalbazaar.com/
Language: JavaScript
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Topics: crypto, cryptography, x509, message-digest, aes, asn1, cipher, pkcs, tls, javascript, certificate, pkcs7, pkcs1, pkcs12, pbkdf2, csr, hmac, sha1, sha256, md5
Last push: 2026-03-25T20:58:31+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 66/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 74, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5892, "days_push": 161, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases, no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 5330, forks 859 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:15.700074+00:00)

## What it is
Forge is a pure-JavaScript implementation of the TLS protocol plus a broad set of cryptographic utilities including AES, RSA, X.509 certificates, PKCS standards, ASN.1, and message digests. It runs in both Node.js and browsers and is designed for building crypto-heavy, network-oriented web applications.

## Use cases
- generate x509 certificates in javascript
- implement tls in the browser
- create pkcs12 or pkcs7 bundles in node
- parse asn1 structures in javascript
- generate rsa keys and csr in the browser
- compute sha256 hmac digests without native crypto
- encrypt and decrypt aes in a webapp

## When to choose
- you need TLS or PKI operations in pure JavaScript without native dependencies
- you must generate or parse certificates, CSRs, or PKCS structures in Node or the browser
- you need broad crypto primitives (AES, RSA, digests, ASN.1) in one library

## When to avoid
- you only need standard hashing or TLS in Node.js - use the built-in crypto module instead
- you need side-channel-resistant, audited crypto for production secrets - prefer native/WebCrypto implementations
- you need post-quantum or modern AEAD-only workflows better served by libsodium

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: maintenance
- function: cryptography, security, serialization, http-client
- domain: security, web-development, developer-tools
- platform: browser
- tags: tls, x509, pki, asn1, aes, rsa, pkcs, hmac, sha256, certificates, csr, pure-javascript, nodejs, javascript

## Member repositories
- digitalbazaar/forge (main) score 66

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:15.700074+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 2026-08-29T17:58:53.242371+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/digitalbazaar/forge (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:15.700074+00:00, sha 8098650f9baa)
  - homepage: https://digitalbazaar.com/ (fetched 2026-08-29T08:53:48.425234+00:00, sha 1fe2dafbcba8)
  - site_page: https://www.digitalbazaar.com/about-us (fetched 2026-08-29T08:53:48.434591+00:00, sha 31bd230b2c11)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.