# unicode-org/icu

The home of the ICU project source code.

Repository: https://github.com/unicode-org/icu
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/icu
Homepage: https://icu.unicode.org/
Language: C++
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Topics: icu, icu4c, icu4j, unicode, java, cpp, c-plus-plus, i18n, unicode-consortium
Last push: 2026-08-26T00:46:04+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 82/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 51, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3890, "days_push": 8, "days_rel": 169, "gap_med": 105.0, "n_releases_24m": 5}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 3586, forks 909 (observed 2026-08-28T04:08:11.116559+00:00)

## What it is
ICU (International Components for Unicode) is the Unicode Consortium's mature C/C++ and Java library providing Unicode and globalization support: locale data, collation, text segmentation, date/time formatting, and MessageFormat 2.0. It is the reference implementation underlying internationalization in many operating systems, browsers, and programming languages.

## Use cases
- format dates and numbers according to the user's locale
- sort strings with locale-aware collation
- segment text into words, sentences, and graphemes
- normalize and compare Unicode strings
- translate messages with plural and gender rules using MessageFormat
- get up-to-date CLDR locale data and time zone rules
- handle internationalized domain names (IDNA)

## When to choose
- you need comprehensive, standards-based Unicode and i18n support in C/C++ or Java
- you need the latest Unicode and CLDR locale data
- you are building software that must handle multiple languages, calendars, and scripts correctly

## When to avoid
- you only need basic i18n already provided by your language's standard library
- you work in a language with its own ICU bindings or built-in Intl APIs and don't need direct C/C++/Java access
- you need a lightweight dependency - ICU is large

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: internationalization, nlp, date-time, parser, serialization
- domain: developer-tools, cross-platform
- platform: cpp, jvm, cross-platform, windows
- tags: unicode, icu4c, icu4j, cldr, locale-data, text-segmentation, collation, messageformat, localization, natural-language-processing, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- unicode-org/icu (main) score 82

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:11.116559+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 2026-08-29T18:33:54.393610+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/unicode-org/icu (fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:11.116559+00:00, sha 692d32aff59d)
  - homepage: https://icu.unicode.org/ (fetched 2026-08-29T09:27:25.601411+00:00, sha fa12146e9d3f)
  - site_page: https://icu.unicode.org/docs (fetched 2026-08-29T09:27:25.614541+00:00, sha 02b2cd49aebb)
  - site_page: https://icu.unicode.org/docs/gdocs-test-1 (fetched 2026-08-29T09:27:25.616921+00:00, sha 1f43f6dac96b)
  - site_page: https://icu.unicode.org/processes/release/tasks/apis-docs (fetched 2026-08-29T09:27:25.626013+00:00, sha 6b695ab19806)
  - site_page: https://icu.unicode.org/download/old (fetched 2026-08-29T09:27:25.611654+00:00, sha 793836d31358)
  - site_page: https://icu.unicode.org/design (fetched 2026-08-29T09:27:25.619579+00:00, sha e729b2ca0c62)
  - site_page: https://icu.unicode.org/design/formatting/timezone/getoffset/edge-cases-20070719 (fetched 2026-08-29T09:27:25.621943+00:00, sha bb9ceff7f2f5)
  - site_page: https://icu.unicode.org/processes/maintenance-releases (fetched 2026-08-29T09:27:25.624112+00:00, sha 29edfb961b87)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.