# pillarjs/hbs

Express view engine wrapper for Handlebars

Repository: https://github.com/pillarjs/hbs
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/hbs
Language: JavaScript
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2026-08-25T09:35:38+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 91/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 75, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5820, "days_push": 8, "days_rel": 8, "gap_med": 145, "n_releases_24m": 2}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1686, forks 198 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:22.120667+00:00)

## What it is
hbs is an Express.js view engine wrapper for the Handlebars templating library. It lets Express apps render .hbs templates via res.render, with support for helpers, partials, and exposing locals as template data.

## Use cases
- render handlebars templates in an express app
- set up a view engine for server-rendered html pages
- register handlebars helpers and partials in express
- load partials from a directory in an express project
- expose express locals as template data in views

## When to choose
- you use Express and want Handlebars as your server-side template engine
- you need a minimal, battle-tested wrapper around handlebars.js for Node.js
- you want convenient directory-based partial registration in Express

## When to avoid
- you use a framework other than Express
- you need client-side or isomorphic templating
- you prefer a different template language like EJS, Pug, or React SSR

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: templating, web-framework
- domain: web-development, backend
- platform: -
- tags: handlebars, express, view-engine, server-side-templating, nodejs

## Member repositories
- pillarjs/hbs (main) score 91

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:22.120667+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 2026-08-30T03:38:59.610721+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/pillarjs/hbs (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:22.120667+00:00, sha 13d8cd7343b1)
  - registry_npm: https://registry.npmjs.org/hbs (fetched 2026-08-29T11:14:07.002187+00:00, sha 6892ae50537f)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.