# davecgh/go-spew

Implements a deep pretty printer for Go data structures to aid in debugging

Repository: https://github.com/davecgh/go-spew
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/go-spew
Language: Go
License: ISC
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2024-04-06T10:36:47+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4984, "days_push": 879, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 6409, forks 374 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:43.188401+00:00)

## What it is
go-spew is a Go library that implements a deep pretty printer for Go data structures, showing types, pointers, and full structure details to aid debugging. It offers Dump/Sdump functions and Printf-style wrappers with enhanced formatting verbs.

## Use cases
- pretty print nested Go data structures for debugging
- dump variables with type and pointer information
- inspect complex structs during development
- print Go maps and slices with full detail
- debug web application state in development

## When to choose
- you need deep, detailed inspection of Go variables while debugging
- standard fmt printing is insufficient for nested or pointer-heavy data
- you want a stable, well-tested library with 100% test coverage

## When to avoid
- you need structured machine-readable output like JSON for logging
- you want a debugger with breakpoints instead of print-based debugging
- you need logging in production rather than development diagnostics

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: maintenance
- function: developer-tools, logging, serialization
- domain: developer-tools
- platform: go, cross-platform
- tags: pretty-printer, debugging, data-structures, dump, go

## Member repositories
- davecgh/go-spew (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:43.188401+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 2026-08-29T17:44:56.226895+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/davecgh/go-spew (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:43.188401+00:00, sha 322c95c425ca)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.