# denisbrodbeck/machineid

Get the unique machine id of any host (without admin privileges)

Repository: https://github.com/denisbrodbeck/machineid
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/machineid
Language: Go
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: golang, go, machineid, hostid, library, cmdline, cross-platform, mit-license
Last push: 2024-08-20T07:27:25+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3241, "days_push": 743, "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 1176, forks 160 (observed 2026-08-28T04:03:52.606833+00:00)

## What it is
A Go library and small CLI that reads the operating system's native machine ID (machine UUID/GUID) on Windows, Linux, macOS, and BSD without requiring admin privileges. It also offers a cryptographically secure ProtectedID function that HMAC-SHA256 hashes the machine ID with an application-specific key.

## Use cases
- get a unique machine id in go without admin rights
- identify a host machine cross-platform
- generate a hashed device id for license keys
- fingerprint a machine for telemetry or analytics
- get machine guid on windows from go
- read /etc/machine-id or IOPlatformUUID programmatically

## When to choose
- you need a stable per-OS machine identifier in a Go application
- you want device identification without touching MAC addresses, CPU IDs, or BIOS data
- you need a privacy-friendlier hashed machine ID for licensing or telemetry
- you need a small dependency-free CLI to print a host's machine id

## When to avoid
- you need hardware-level identification that survives OS reinstalls or cloning
- you require tamper-proof device binding (root/admin can change these IDs)
- you are not using Go and need a native library in another language
- you need identification in VMs cloned from the same image, where IDs may collide

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: security, cli, developer-tools
- domain: developer-tools, cross-platform, security
- platform: windows, bsd, go, cross-platform, cli
- tags: machine-id, host-identification, hmac, device-fingerprinting, licensing, telemetry, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- denisbrodbeck/machineid (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:52.606833+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 2026-08-30T06:26:34.773869+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/denisbrodbeck/machineid (fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:52.606833+00:00, sha ab18b01b7a5c)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.