# google/ion

Ion

Repository: https://github.com/google/ion
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/google-ion
Language: C++
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Archived: true
Last push: 2022-06-09T07:59:49+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": 3873, "days_push": 1546, "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 1419, forks 89 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:40.458527+00:00)

## What it is
Ion is a portable C++ suite of libraries and tools from Google for building graphical client applications across desktop, mobile, browser, and embedded platforms. It provides application infrastructure plus graphics tooling such as OpenGL tracing, shader editing, and performance analysis on top of OpenGL/ES.

## Use cases
- build cross-platform graphical client applications in C++
- trace and debug OpenGL calls
- edit shaders at runtime and see results immediately
- analyze graphics scenes for performance bottlenecks
- run graphics apps on mobile and browser via Emscripten
- unit test renderers with a mock OpenGL implementation

## When to choose
- you need a small, fast C++ graphics/application framework across desktop, mobile, and web
- you want runtime introspection and editing of graphics state and shaders
- you need well-tested portable application infrastructure used at scale

## When to avoid
- you want a high-level game engine with assets, physics, and editors
- you target modern APIs like Vulkan or Metal rather than OpenGL/ES
- you need a project with frequent recent releases and active community support

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: maintenance
- function: graphics, game-engine, ui-components, developer-tools, testing
- domain: graphics, cross-platform, developer-tools
- platform: cpp, windows, cross-platform, wasm
- tags: opengl, graphics-engine, 3d-graphics, shaders, mobile-graphics, emscripten, game-development, linux, macos, android, ios

## Member repositories
- google/ion (main) score 10

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:40.458527+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 2026-08-30T04:37:53.006688+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/google/ion (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:40.458527+00:00, sha 5ab4a273f909)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.