# highlightjs/highlight.js

JavaScript syntax highlighter with language auto-detection and zero dependencies.

Repository: https://github.com/highlightjs/highlight.js
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/highlightjs
Homepage: https://highlightjs.org/
Language: JavaScript
License: BSD-3-Clause
License Family: permissive
Topics: syntax-highlighting, language-grammars, highlighting, syntax-highlighter, javascript
Last push: 2026-08-24T18:23:54+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 94/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 85, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5723, "days_push": 9, "days_rel": 21, "gap_med": 49, "n_releases_24m": 4}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 24985, forks 3748 (observed 2026-08-28T04:11:37.754731+00:00)

## What it is
Highlight.js is a zero-dependency JavaScript syntax highlighter supporting 193 languages with automatic language detection and 516 themes. It works in the browser, on the server (Node.js/Deno), and with any JS framework or HTML markup.

## Use cases
- highlight code snippets on a blog or docs site
- add syntax highlighting to a web page
- auto-detect the language of a code block
- render colored code in Node.js or Deno
- highlight code in a Vue or React app
- theme code blocks with CSS styles

## When to choose
- you need broad language coverage with automatic detection
- you want a zero-dependency, framework-agnostic highlighter
- you need both browser and server-side highlighting

## When to avoid
- you need editor-grade highlighting with full IDE features
- you need extremely precise tokenization for complex languages
- you want highlighting inside a native code editor component

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: ui-components, frontend-framework, developer-tools, markdown
- domain: web-development, frontend, developer-tools, documentation
- platform: browser, cross-platform
- tags: syntax-highlighting, code-highlighting, language-detection, zero-dependencies, themes, nodejs, deno, web-server

## Member repositories
- highlightjs/highlight.js (main) score 94

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:37.754731+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 2026-08-29T16:56:07.767260+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/highlightjs/highlight.js (fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:37.754731+00:00, sha df78c9e7c5ae)
  - homepage: https://highlightjs.org/ (fetched 2026-08-29T07:53:30.600989+00:00, sha 5f1fd27d58e5)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.