# alexeyraspopov/picocolors

The tiniest and the fastest library for terminal output formatting with ANSI colors

Repository: https://github.com/alexeyraspopov/picocolors
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/picocolors
Language: JavaScript
License: ISC
License Family: permissive
Topics: ansi, colors, console, terminal, zero-dependency
Last push: 2024-11-18T17:46:33+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": 1801, "days_push": 653, "days_rel": 686, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 1}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1748, forks 52 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:30.893664+00:00)

## What it is
picocolors is a tiny, zero-dependency JavaScript library for coloring and formatting terminal output with ANSI escape codes. It is significantly smaller and faster than alternatives like chalk, supports Node.js and browsers, and respects the NO_COLOR convention.

## Use cases
- colorize CLI output in a Node.js script
- add ANSI colors to console logs in a build tool
- replace chalk to shrink node_modules size
- format terminal text with bold, italic, and background colors
- respect NO_COLOR in a CLI tool
- style output in a CJS or ESM project

## When to choose
- you need terminal colors with minimal bundle or node_modules footprint
- performance of color formatting matters in a hot path
- you want a zero-dependency, CJS/ESM-compatible color library
- you need NO_COLOR support out of the box

## When to avoid
- you need advanced features like 256-color or truecolor detection chains
- you want rich theming or template-literal styling like chalk's tagged templates
- you are not targeting JavaScript/Node.js environments

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: cli, developer-tools
- domain: developer-tools
- platform: cli, cross-platform
- tags: ansi-colors, terminal-formatting, zero-dependency, no-color, command-line, nodejs

## Member repositories
- alexeyraspopov/picocolors (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:30.893664+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 2026-08-30T03:28:48.372399+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/alexeyraspopov/picocolors (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:30.893664+00:00, sha 784c86c4fa2b)
  - registry_npm: https://registry.npmjs.org/picocolors (fetched 2026-08-29T11:07:00.767231+00:00, sha c285076466d3)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.