# FreeRTOS

'Classic' FreeRTOS distribution.  Started as Git clone of FreeRTOS SourceForge SVN repo.  Submodules the kernel.

Repository: https://github.com/FreeRTOS/FreeRTOS
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/freertos
Homepage: https://www.FreeRTOS.org
Language: C
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2026-08-26T19:07:36+00:00
Link (homepage): https://www.FreeRTOS.org
Link (site_page): https://www.freertos.org/Documentation/02-Kernel/02-Kernel-features/00-Developer-docs
Link (site_page): https://www.freertos.org/Why-FreeRTOS
Link (site_page): https://www.freertos.org/Documentation/00-Overview
Link (site_page): https://www.freertos.org/Documentation/03-Libraries/02-FreeRTOS-plus/05-FreeRTOS_plus_Trace/01-Percepio_View

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 67/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2556, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 650, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 1}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 7723, forks 2079 (observed 2026-08-28T04:10:02.589806+00:00)

## What it is
The classic FreeRTOS distribution, a real-time operating system for microcontrollers and small microprocessors that submodules the FreeRTOS kernel and bundles libraries such as FreeRTOS+TCP, coreMQTT, and AWS IoT libraries. It supports 40+ processor architectures with a small memory footprint and MIT licensing.

## Use cases
- run tasks on a microcontroller with a real-time kernel
- build IoT firmware that connects to AWS IoT via MQTT
- add a thread-safe TCP/IP stack with IPv6 to an embedded device
- perform over-the-air firmware updates on embedded devices
- port an RTOS to a new ARM Cortex-M microcontroller
- implement SMP multitasking on small processors

## When to choose
- you need a proven, tiny-footprint RTOS with wide architecture support
- you are building connected embedded devices with cloud integration
- you want MIT-licensed, actively maintained embedded software with LTS releases

## When to avoid
- you need a full-featured OS with filesystems and user processes on application processors
- your project targets Linux-capable hardware where a general-purpose OS fits better
- you need hard real-time certification guarantees beyond what the standard license provides

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: embedded, concurrency, networking, security, sdk
- domain: embedded-systems, iot, operating-systems
- platform: embedded, iot, c, cpp, cross-platform, windows
- tags: rtos, real-time-operating-system, microcontroller, kernel, aws-iot, mqtt, tcp-stack, smp, ota-updates, firmware, real-time, linux

## Member repositories
- FreeRTOS/FreeRTOS (main) score 67
- FreeRTOS/FreeRTOS-Kernel (backend) score 88

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:02.589806+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 2026-08-29T17:35:15.424452+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/FreeRTOS/FreeRTOS (fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:02.589806+00:00, sha 0f4837804c97)
  - homepage: https://www.FreeRTOS.org (fetched 2026-08-29T08:31:35.156177+00:00, sha a7a9bac25a9a)
  - site_page: https://www.freertos.org/Documentation/03-Libraries/01-Library-overview/03-LTS-libraries/01-LTS-libraries (fetched 2026-08-29T08:31:35.167840+00:00, sha f234e544929e)
  - site_page: https://www.freertos.org/Documentation/02-Kernel/02-Kernel-features/00-Developer-docs (fetched 2026-08-29T08:31:35.169358+00:00, sha d3079c21066f)
  - site_page: https://www.freertos.org/Documentation/00-Overview (fetched 2026-08-29T08:31:35.161681+00:00, sha 8dde407ac889)
  - site_page: https://www.freertos.org/Documentation/03-Libraries/02-FreeRTOS-plus/05-FreeRTOS_plus_Trace/01-Percepio_View (fetched 2026-08-29T08:31:35.163281+00:00, sha c6bb16e9ff34)
  - site_page: https://www.freertos.org/Documentation/02-Kernel/03-Supported-devices/00-Supported-devices (fetched 2026-08-29T08:31:35.164805+00:00, sha da72bb35a746)
  - site_page: https://www.freertos.org/Documentation/02-Kernel/01-About-the-FreeRTOS-kernel/04-Licensing (fetched 2026-08-29T08:31:35.166347+00:00, sha dfd6b557badd)
  - site_page: https://www.freertos.org/Documentation/01-FreeRTOS-quick-start/01-Beginners-guide/00-Overview (fetched 2026-08-29T08:31:35.171153+00:00, sha 03cbcc933c3e)
  - site_page: https://www.freertos.org/Why-FreeRTOS (fetched 2026-08-29T08:31:35.160002+00:00, sha b0c72ce31948)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.