# python-eel/Eel

A little Python library for making simple Electron-like HTML/JS GUI apps

Repository: https://github.com/python-eel/Eel
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/eel
Language: Python
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: hacktoberfest
Archived: true
Last push: 2025-06-22T18:29:43+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 10/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 28, release rhythm 16, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3171, "days_push": 437, "days_rel": 437, "gap_med": 106.5, "n_releases_24m": 3}
- flags: archived
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 6736, forks 601 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:48.194790+00:00)

## What it is
Eel is a lightweight Python library for building simple Electron-like desktop GUI apps with HTML/JS frontends while retaining full access to Python capabilities and libraries. It hosts a local web server and lets you annotate Python functions so they can be called from JavaScript and vice versa.

## Use cases
- build a desktop GUI app in Python with an HTML/JS frontend
- make a simple Electron-like app using Python
- call Python functions from JavaScript in a desktop app
- turn a Python script into a GUI application
- lightweight alternative to Electron or cefpython for small apps
- create an offline HTML GUI with access to Python libraries like file system access
- wrap an internal team utility script in a web-based UI

## When to choose
- You know Python plus basic web development and need a quick GUI for a small utility or internal tool
- You want easy bidirectional Python/JS interop without writing boilerplate client-server code
- Your app benefits from Python's ecosystem (e.g., math, data, or file access) behind a friendly HTML/JS interface
- You plan to distribute the app as a binary via PyInstaller

## When to avoid
- You need a fully-fledged production desktop application on the scale of Electron apps like Atom
- You require a well-maintained dependency - the maintainers state the project is effectively unmaintained with no plans to change
- Security is critical - the README explicitly warns to consider how you will secure anything built with it
- You need packaged native widgets or support for browsers/engines beyond Chrome/Chromium/Edge

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: abandoned
- function: gui, desktop-framework, http-server
- domain: desktop-applications, web-development, cross-platform, developer-tools
- platform: python, cross-platform
- tags: electron-alternative, python-javascript-interop, html-gui, chromium-app-mode, js-python-bridge, pyinstaller-packaging, lightweight-gui, local-webserver, desktop

## Member repositories
- python-eel/Eel (main) score 10

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:48.194790+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 2026-08-29T17:42:47.804488+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/python-eel/Eel (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:48.194790+00:00, sha f1eef2de2238)
  - registry_pypi: https://pypi.org/pypi/eel/json (fetched 2026-08-29T08:38:42.028392+00:00, sha f295cfe55e27)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.