# perlin-network/life

A secure WebAssembly VM catered for decentralized applications.

Repository: https://github.com/perlin-network/life
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/perlin-network-life
Language: Go
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2022-03-30T17:36:24+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2969, "days_push": 1617, "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 1689, forks 111 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:22.432359+00:00)

## What it is
Life is a secure and fast WebAssembly virtual machine written in pure Go, featuring an interpreter and an experimental AOT compilation engine (Polymerase). It is designed for running sandboxed Wasm modules in decentralized applications with fine-grained control over resources like instruction cycles and memory.

## Use cases
- run webassembly modules inside a go application
- sandbox untrusted wasm code with resource limits
- execute smart contracts compiled to wasm
- embed a wasm interpreter in a cross-platform app without native dependencies
- aot-compile wasm modules for faster execution
- run wasm programs on mobile or embedded platforms

## When to choose
- you need a pure-Go wasm runtime with no native dependencies
- you need fine-grained sandboxing and resource metering for untrusted wasm code
- you are building decentralized applications that execute wasm smart contracts
- you need to cross-compile wasm execution to many platforms

## When to avoid
- you need a spec-complete, actively maintained wasm runtime (project last released in 2022)
- you need JIT performance comparable to wasmtime or wasmer
- you need wasm features beyond the core execution semantics
- your project is not in Go

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: maintenance
- function: interpreter, compiler, wasm, developer-tools
- domain: developer-tools, programming-languages, blockchain, cross-platform
- platform: go, cross-platform, windows
- tags: webassembly-vm, wasm-runtime, aot-compilation, smart-contracts, decentralized-applications, sandboxed-execution, sandboxing, linux, macos, android, ios

## Member repositories
- perlin-network/life (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:22.432359+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 2026-08-30T03:38:41.845492+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/perlin-network/life (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:22.432359+00:00, sha ecf337197c6c)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.