# moonsharp-devs/moonsharp

An interpreter for the Lua language, written entirely in C# for the .NET, Mono, Xamarin and Unity3D platforms, including handy remote debugger facilities.

Repository: https://github.com/moonsharp-devs/moonsharp
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/moonsharp
Homepage: http://www.moonsharp.org
Language: C#
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Topics: moonsharp, mono, debugger, interpreter, c-sharp, unity3d, lua, xamarin
Last push: 2026-08-04T06:45:45+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 78/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 96, release rhythm 41, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4484, "days_push": 29, "days_rel": 183, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 1}
- flags: prerelease_only, no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1614, forks 243 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:11.363636+00:00)

## What it is
MoonSharp is a complete Lua 5.2 interpreter written entirely in C# for .NET, Mono, Xamarin, and Unity, with no external dependencies. It includes CLR interop, sandboxing, coroutines, bytecode dumping, and remote debugging via the Debug Adapter Protocol (e.g., VS Code).

## Use cases
- embed a Lua scripting engine in a Unity game
- run Lua scripts inside a .NET application
- add mod scripting support to a C# project
- debug Lua scripts from Visual Studio Code
- sandbox user-provided Lua scripts safely
- call C# objects and methods from Lua
- run Lua on iOS or IL2CPP ahead-of-time platforms

## When to choose
- you need a pure managed Lua implementation with no native dependencies
- you target Unity, Mono, Xamarin, or AOT/IL2CPP platforms
- you need tight, performant interop between Lua and CLR objects
- you want built-in debugger and sandboxing support

## When to avoid
- you need 100% Lua 5.2/5.4 compatibility (weak tables and some debug module features are missing)
- you need maximum raw interpreter performance of the official C Lua VM
- you target .NET versions older than 4.5 or Unity before 2019

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: interpreter, programming-language, parser, json
- domain: programming-languages, developer-tools, cross-platform
- platform: dotnet, cpp, cross-platform
- tags: lua, c-sharp, unity3d, mono, xamarin, scripting, remote-debugger, sandboxing, coroutines, il2cpp, debugger, game-development, desktop, mobile

## Member repositories
- moonsharp-devs/moonsharp (main) score 78

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:11.363636+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 2026-08-30T03:50:23.058150+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/moonsharp-devs/moonsharp (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:11.363636+00:00, sha c5de7e12a7d3)
  - homepage: http://www.moonsharp.org (fetched 2026-08-29T11:22:44.415072+00:00, sha c6cc7f1bd7a1)
  - site_page: https://www.moonsharp.org/about.html (fetched 2026-08-29T11:22:44.424845+00:00, sha 17064e65564b)
  - site_page: https://www.moonsharp.org/faq.html (fetched 2026-08-29T11:22:44.427021+00:00, sha 0588bbc92f78)
  - site_page: https://www.moonsharp.org/changelog.html (fetched 2026-08-29T11:22:44.429607+00:00, sha 8e4356549406)
  - site_page: https://www.moonsharp.org/recipes.html (fetched 2026-08-29T11:22:44.431709+00:00, sha cb3792b5a796)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.