# Firmata

Firmata firmware for Arduino

Repository: https://github.com/firmata/arduino
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/firmata
Language: C++
License: LGPL-2.1
License Family: copyleft
Last push: 2024-09-13T12:20:20+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5340, "days_push": 719, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1619, forks 519 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:12.171374+00:00)

## What it is
Firmata is a serial communication protocol for controlling microcontrollers from software on a host computer, and this repository is the Firmata library/firmware for Arduino and Arduino-compatible boards. Loading the StandardFirmata sketch lets a host computer interact with the board's pins via client libraries in many languages.

## Use cases
- control an arduino's pins from python or node on my computer
- read sensor data from a microcontroller into a host application
- blink leds and read analog inputs from a desktop program
- use an arduino as a general-purpose io device without writing firmware
- communicate with arduino over ethernet from a host
- prototype hardware interactions from a high-level language

## When to choose
- you want to control an Arduino from a host computer without writing custom firmware
- you need a standard protocol with client libraries in many languages
- you're prototyping physical computing or robotics from a desktop environment

## When to avoid
- you need tight real-time performance or fully autonomous on-board logic
- you want minimal firmware size or custom pin behavior baked into the sketch
- you're not using an Arduino-compatible board with serial or ethernet connectivity

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: embedded, sdk, serialization
- domain: embedded-systems, hardware, iot, robotics
- platform: embedded, iot, cpp
- tags: firmata-protocol, microcontroller, arduino, serial-communication, host-client

## Member repositories
- firmata/arduino (main) score 23
- firmata/protocol (docs) score 53

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:12.171374+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 2026-08-30T03:49:24.354592+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/firmata/arduino (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:12.171374+00:00, sha d360ad957b82)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.