# notify-rs/notify

🔭 Cross-platform filesystem notification library for Rust.

Repository: https://github.com/notify-rs/notify
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/notify-rs-notify
Homepage: https://docs.rs/notify
Language: Rust
License Family: other
Topics: rust, filesystem, filesystem-events, watcher, cross-platform
Last push: 2026-08-24T11:02:32+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 84/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 55, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4283, "days_push": 9, "days_rel": 220, "gap_med": 53.5, "n_releases_24m": 7}
- 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 3440, forks 285 (observed 2026-08-28T04:08:05.066939+00:00)

## What it is
Notify is a cross-platform filesystem notification library for Rust that watches files and directories and emits events using native OS backends (inotify, FSEvents, kqueue, ReadDirectoryChangesW) with a polling fallback. It ships companion crates for debounced events and file identification, and is widely used by tools like rust-analyzer, deno, and zed.

## Use cases
- watch a directory for file changes in Rust
- trigger rebuilds when source files change
- monitor config files for modifications
- detect when files are created, renamed, or deleted
- build a file-watching dev server or hot-reload tool
- poll filesystem changes on network mounts like NFS

## When to choose
- you need cross-platform file watching in a Rust project
- you want native OS event backends with a polling fallback
- you need debounced filesystem events via companion crates
- you want a battle-tested library used by major Rust tools

## When to avoid
- you need desktop notifications instead of filesystem events (use notify-rust)
- you rely on events from network filesystems like NFS without polling
- you are not working in Rust

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: file-system, developer-tools
- domain: developer-tools, cross-platform, files
- platform: windows, rust, cross-platform, bsd
- tags: filesystem-watcher, inotify, fsevents, kqueue, file-events, rust-library, linux, macos, android, ios

## Member repositories
- notify-rs/notify (main) score 84

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:05.066939+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 2026-08-29T18:37:39.764518+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/notify-rs/notify (fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:05.066939+00:00, sha 1f6f5e7e0808)
  - homepage: https://docs.rs/notify (fetched 2026-08-29T09:31:40.673272+00:00, sha 769e9c486968)
  - site_page: https://docs.rs/ (fetched 2026-08-29T09:31:40.682881+00:00, sha eb451773a76b)
  - site_page: https://docs.rs/crate/notify/latest (fetched 2026-08-29T09:31:40.684775+00:00, sha 009b9186d814)
  - site_page: https://docs.rs/crate/notify/latest/features (fetched 2026-08-29T09:31:40.686677+00:00, sha 98146f059e36)
  - site_page: https://docs.rs/about (fetched 2026-08-29T09:31:40.688373+00:00, sha 29ab7986fbf5)
  - site_page: https://docs.rs/about/badges (fetched 2026-08-29T09:31:40.690042+00:00, sha 6588cac258af)
  - site_page: https://docs.rs/about/builds (fetched 2026-08-29T09:31:40.691609+00:00, sha 811231ca4680)
  - site_page: https://docs.rs/about/metadata (fetched 2026-08-29T09:31:40.693288+00:00, sha 0dcdccb2b2b2)
  - site_page: https://docs.rs/about/redirections (fetched 2026-08-29T09:31:40.695296+00:00, sha 1b1efd93105f)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.