# mlabbe/nativefiledialog

A tiny, neat C library that portably invokes native file open and save dialogs.

Repository: https://github.com/mlabbe/nativefiledialog
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/nativefiledialog
Language: Makefile
License: Zlib
License Family: permissive
Topics: gui, c, macos, windows, linux, dialog
Last push: 2024-08-10T15:29:36+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4299, "days_push": 753, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1989, forks 228 (observed 2026-08-28T04:06:02.922758+00:00)

## What it is
A tiny, portable C library that invokes native file open, save, and folder-select dialogs on Windows, macOS, and Linux with a single consistent API. It has no third-party dependencies and avoids heavyweight GUI frameworks like Qt or wxWidgets.

## Use cases
- open a native file picker from a C or C++ app
- show a save file dialog cross-platform
- let users select a folder in a desktop application
- add file selection to an SDL2 game without a GUI toolkit
- pick multiple files at once with a native dialog
- avoid linking Qt or wxWidgets just for file dialogs

## When to choose
- you need native-looking file dialogs in a C/C++ desktop app
- you want a minimal, dependency-free static library
- you target Windows, macOS, and Linux with one codebase
- you need UTF-8 consistent paths across platforms

## When to avoid
- you need full GUI widgets beyond file dialogs
- you are building a web or mobile application
- you need custom-styled or non-native dialogs
- your project is not C/C++ compatible

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: gui, file-system, developer-tools
- domain: desktop-applications, cross-platform, developer-tools
- platform: windows, c, cpp
- tags: native-file-dialogs, file-picker, zlib-license, no-dependencies, gtk3, cocoa, ifiledialog, macos, linux

## Member repositories
- mlabbe/nativefiledialog (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:02.922758+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 2026-08-30T03:02:56.466655+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/mlabbe/nativefiledialog (fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:02.922758+00:00, sha 326dd05298ec)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.