# tildeio/htmlbars

A variant of Handlebars that emits DOM and allows you to write helpers that manipulate live DOM nodes

Repository: https://github.com/tildeio/htmlbars
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/htmlbars
Language: JavaScript
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Archived: true
Last push: 2019-04-03T18:32:33+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": 4913, "days_push": 2709, "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 1626, forks 137 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:12.991970+00:00)

## What it is
HTMLBars is a variant of Handlebars that compiles templates into DOM document fragments instead of string buffers, enabling helpers that manipulate live DOM nodes. It was the template engine behind Ember.js and has since been superseded by Glimmer VM.

## Use cases
- compile handlebars templates directly into DOM fragments
- write template helpers that manipulate live DOM nodes
- render templates without string interpolation
- build custom view layers on top of handlebars syntax

## When to choose
- you are maintaining a legacy Ember.js or HTMLBars-based codebase
- you need historical compatibility with HTMLBars template semantics

## When to avoid
- you are starting a new project - use Glimmer VM or a modern framework instead
- you need string-based template output rather than DOM fragments
- you need a maintained, actively supported templating library

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: abandoned
- function: templating, compiler, web-framework
- domain: web-development, frontend, compilers
- platform: browser
- tags: handlebars, dom-templates, ember, deprecated, glimmer, nodejs, javascript

## Member repositories
- tildeio/htmlbars (main) score 10

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:12.991970+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 2026-08-30T03:48:27.894040+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/tildeio/htmlbars (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:12.991970+00:00, sha 15c47a859704)
  - registry_npm: https://registry.npmjs.org/htmlbars (fetched 2026-08-29T11:21:29.022622+00:00, sha b1c96527276a)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.