# picoruby/picoruby

PicoRuby is the smallest Ruby implementation for one-chip microcontrollers

Repository: https://github.com/picoruby/picoruby
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/picoruby
Language: C
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: mruby, microcontroller, mrubyc, ruby
Last push: 2026-09-02T05:41:13+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 91/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 100, release rhythm 74, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2419, "days_push": 0, "days_rel": 17, "gap_med": 140, "n_releases_24m": 2}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1099, forks 72 (observed 2026-09-03T02:15:16.886880+00:00)

## What it is
PicoRuby is a compact alternative implementation of the Ruby language (based on mruby and mruby/c VMs) designed to run on one-chip microcontrollers with as little as 128 KB of RAM. It is written in portable C and powers projects like PRK keyboard firmware, R2P2 shell systems, and a WebAssembly runtime.

## Use cases
- run ruby scripts on a raspberry pi pico
- write keyboard firmware in ruby
- embed a small scripting language in a microcontroller project
- build an esp32 application scripted with ruby
- run ruby in the browser via webassembly
- prototype embedded iot devices with a high-level language

## When to choose
- you want to program microcontrollers like the Raspberry Pi Pico or ESP32 in Ruby
- you need a very small scripting VM with RAM under 512 KB
- you are building PRK Firmware-based keyboards or R2P2 shells
- you want portable C code that runs on bare metal or WASI

## When to avoid
- you need full CRuby compatibility or gems from the standard Ruby ecosystem
- your target has abundant resources where standard mruby or CRuby suffices
- you need maximum real-time performance from hand-tuned C
- you are not comfortable building from source with a C toolchain

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: interpreter, programming-language, embedded
- domain: embedded-systems, programming-languages, hardware, iot
- platform: embedded, cross-platform, wasm, cli
- tags: ruby, mruby, microcontroller, vm, raspberry-pi-pico, esp32, keyboard-firmware

## Member repositories
- picoruby/picoruby (main) score 91

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-09-03T02:15:16.886880+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 2026-08-30T06:46:04.505417+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/picoruby/picoruby (fetched 2026-09-03T02:15:16.886880+00:00, sha f63301796033)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.