# ValveSoftware/GameNetworkingSockets

Reliable & unreliable messages over UDP.  Robust message fragmentation & reassembly.  P2P networking / NAT traversal.  Encryption.

Repository: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/GameNetworkingSockets
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/gamenetworkingsockets
Language: C++
License: BSD-3-Clause
License Family: permissive
Topics: reliable-messages, networking, game-development, realtime-messaging, peer-to-peer
Last push: 2026-08-26T19:13:15+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 95/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 87, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3087, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 91, "gap_med": 17.5, "n_releases_24m": 3}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 9865, forks 742 (observed 2026-08-28T04:10:37.546614+00:00)

## What it is
GameNetworkingSockets is a C++ transport layer library for games providing connection-oriented, message-oriented communication over UDP with reliable and unreliable messaging. It includes fragmentation/reassembly, QUIC-inspired encryption, P2P NAT traversal, and bandwidth management across message lanes.

## Use cases
- implement reliable UDP networking for a multiplayer game
- add P2P connections with NAT traversal to a game
- encrypt game network traffic with per-packet AES-GCM
- send messages larger than the MTU with automatic fragmentation
- simulate packet latency and loss during network testing
- prioritize bandwidth across multiple message streams in one connection

## When to choose
- you need a battle-tested game transport layer with reliable and unreliable messaging over UDP
- you want built-in encryption and P2P NAT traversal without writing your own protocol
- you need fine-grained control over head-of-line blocking and bandwidth sharing across lanes

## When to avoid
- you need a high-level game server framework with matchmaking or lobbies
- your project is not in C++ or a language with bindings to it
- you only need simple TCP or WebSocket communication without game-specific reliability features

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: networking, cryptography, p2p
- domain: networking
- platform: windows, cpp, cross-platform
- tags: udp, reliable-messaging, nat-traversal, transport-layer, encryption, game-networking, quic-inspired, game-development, real-time, linux, macos, ios

## Member repositories
- ValveSoftware/GameNetworkingSockets (main) score 95

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:37.546614+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 2026-08-29T17:20:52.407186+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/GameNetworkingSockets (fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:37.546614+00:00, sha e1e4c49bdd0b)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.