# Azure/golua

A Lua 5.3 engine implemented in Go

Repository: https://github.com/Azure/golua
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/golua
Language: Go
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Archived: true
Last push: 2020-10-12T03:55:07+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 10/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2938, "days_push": 2151, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases, archived
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1817, forks 85 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:40.124159+00:00)

## What it is
A Lua 5.3 engine (compiler and virtual machine) implemented entirely in Go. It allows Go applications to embed and execute Lua scripts without cgo.

## Use cases
- embed a lua scripting engine in a go application
- run lua scripts from go without cgo
- evaluate user-provided lua scripts safely
- parse and execute lua 5.3 code
- add plugin scripting to a go program

## When to choose
- you need a pure-Go Lua interpreter with no cgo dependency
- you want to embed Lua 5.3 scripting in a Go service or tool

## When to avoid
- you need a production-stable, fully compatible Lua implementation
- you need Lua 5.4 or LuaJIT performance and features
- you need long-term maintenance guarantees - the project is experimental and inactive since 2020

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: experimental
- function: interpreter, programming-language, parser
- domain: programming-languages, parsers, developer-tools
- platform: go, cross-platform
- tags: lua, lua-5.3, scripting-engine, embedding, vm

## Member repositories
- Azure/golua (main) score 10

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:40.124159+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 2026-08-30T03:20:10.157768+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/Azure/golua (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:40.124159+00:00, sha 3bf0f7404e47)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.