# mlua

High level Lua 5.5/5.4/5.3/5.2/5.1 (including LuaJIT) and Luau bindings to Rust with async/await support

Repository: https://github.com/mlua-rs/mlua
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/mlua
Language: Rust
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Topics: rust, rust-bindings, lua, luajit, async, asynchronous, scripting, luau, wasm
Last push: 2026-07-28T12:32:58+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 94/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 94, release rhythm 92, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2469, "days_push": 36, "days_rel": 59, "gap_med": 28.0, "n_releases_24m": 13}
- 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 2844, forks 212 (observed 2026-08-28T04:07:24.895722+00:00)

## What it is
mlua is a Rust library providing safe, high-level bindings to Lua 5.5/5.4/5.3/5.2/5.1 (including LuaJIT) and Luau, with async/await support and the ability to write native Lua modules in Rust. It began as a fork of rlua and supports Windows, macOS, Linux, and WebAssembly targets.

## Use cases
- embed a Lua scripting engine in a Rust application
- write native Lua modules in Rust
- run async Rust code from Lua scripts
- support multiple Lua versions including LuaJIT and Luau
- serialize Rust data structures to and from Lua with serde
- compile Lua bindings to WebAssembly

## When to choose
- you need safe, idiomatic Rust bindings to Lua with a high-level API
- you need to support many Lua versions or LuaJIT/Luau from one library
- you want async/await integration between Rust and Lua
- you want to build loadable Lua modules in Rust

## When to avoid
- you need bindings for a language other than Rust
- you want a full Lua interpreter as a standalone executable rather than an embeddable library
- you need zero C dependency and pure-Rust Lua implementation

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: programming-language, interpreter, sdk, serialization, concurrency
- domain: programming-languages, developer-tools, cross-platform
- platform: rust, windows, wasm, cross-platform
- tags: lua-bindings, luajit, luau, scripting, async-await, ffi, native-modules, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- mlua-rs/mlua (main) score 94
- mlua-rs/rlua (mirror) score 10

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:24.895722+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 2026-08-30T07:37:05.384283+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/mlua-rs/mlua (fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:24.895722+00:00, sha 18e9fe65d978)
  - registry_crates: https://crates.io/api/v1/crates/mlua (fetched 2026-08-29T09:52:40.475491+00:00, sha 5f44b060e875)
  - registry_crates: https://crates.io/api/v1/crates/rlua (fetched 2026-08-29T09:52:40.478311+00:00, sha 4f0c643fbf47)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.