# kikito/inspect.lua

Human-readable representation of Lua tables

Repository: https://github.com/kikito/inspect.lua
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/inspectlua
Homepage: https://github.com/kikito/inspect.lua
Language: Lua
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: lua, tables, human-readable
Last push: 2026-01-05T16:28:00+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 59/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 60, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5614, "days_push": 240, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1538, forks 200 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:00.307504+00:00)

## What it is
A single-file Lua library that transforms any Lua value into a human-readable string representation, with special support for rendering tables. It handles nested tables, metatables, and circular references, and is intended for debugging rather than serialization.

## Use cases
- pretty-print Lua tables for debugging
- inspect nested table structures in error logs
- print tables with circular references safely
- display metatables when debugging
- limit output depth when dumping large tables
- render Lua values in REPL or test output

## When to choose
- debugging Lua table contents
- printing nested or self-referential tables
- inspecting metatables
- readable output in tests or REPLs

## When to avoid
- you need machine-readable serialization (use a JSON or data serializer instead)
- you need compact output for storage or transmission
- you are not working with Lua

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: developer-tools, serialization, logging
- domain: developer-tools, programming-languages
- platform: lua, cross-platform
- tags: lua, pretty-printing, debugging, tables, human-readable

## Member repositories
- kikito/inspect.lua (main) score 59

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:00.307504+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 2026-08-30T04:30:57.846641+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/kikito/inspect.lua (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:00.307504+00:00, sha ac53cf59e326)
  - homepage: https://github.com/kikito/inspect.lua (fetched 2026-08-29T11:32:32.760174+00:00, sha de672aabf23b)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.