# rsms/peertalk

iOS and Mac Cocoa library for communicating over USB

Repository: https://github.com/rsms/peertalk
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/peertalk
Homepage: https://rsms.me/peertalk/
Language: Objective-C
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2022-04-27T17:30:46+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5276, "days_push": 1589, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 3495, forks 511 (observed 2026-08-28T04:08:07.316383+00:00)

## What it is
PeerTalk is an iOS and Mac Cocoa library for communicating over USB between an iOS device and a Mac. It provides USB device attach/detach events, TCP-over-USB bridging, and a higher-level channel/protocol API built on Grand Central Dispatch.

## Use cases
- communicate between an iOS app and Mac app over USB
- bridge TCP connections to an iPhone over a Lightning cable
- detect iOS device attach and detach events on macOS
- use an iPhone as an external display for a Mac
- build App Store apps that talk to connected iOS devices

## When to choose
- you need reliable USB-based communication between iOS and macOS apps
- you want a proven library already shipped in App Store apps like Duet Display
- your codebase is Objective-C/Cocoa and uses Grand Central Dispatch

## When to avoid
- you need wireless or network-based communication instead of USB
- your project is not on Apple platforms
- you need actively developed features or recent updates

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: maintenance
- function: networking, concurrency, sdk
- domain: mobile-development, developer-tools, cross-platform
- platform: cpp
- tags: usb-communication, objective-c, cocoa, libdispatch, usb-bridging, tcp-over-usb, ios, macos

## Member repositories
- rsms/peertalk (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:07.316383+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 2026-08-29T18:35:54.791390+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/rsms/peertalk (fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:07.316383+00:00, sha 4543359103c3)
  - homepage: https://rsms.me/peertalk/ (fetched 2026-08-29T09:29:56.461439+00:00, sha 684ddbf38619)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.