tsoding/nob.h

Health v2 · maintenance only

Flags: no_releases no_license

Adoption not part of the score

3216 stars · 210 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-29, confidence not recorded

nob.h is a single-header C library for writing build recipes (build systems) in plain C, requiring nothing but a C compiler to bootstrap. It replaces make/cmake/shell scripts with C code that compiles and builds your project.

Use cases

• build a C project with only a C compiler
• replace make and cmake with a C build script
• write portable build recipes for Linux, macOS, and Windows
• bootstrap a build system from source
• reuse project code inside the build system
• write shell-script-like build automation in C

When to choose

• you have a small-to-medium C/C++ project with few external dependencies
• you want zero build tooling beyond a C compiler
• you want highly portable builds across platforms
• you enjoy writing C and want build logic in the same language

When to avoid

• your project relies on cmake with many dependency-finding modules
• you need a battle-tested, conventional build system
• your team is not comfortable writing C
• you are building in a language other than C/C++

Facets

library · maturity active

build-tool cli file-system developer-tools windows bsd cross-platform c cpp header-only nobuild build-recipes bootstrapping c-build-system no-dependencies command-line automation linux macos

Member repositories

For agents

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