# picotorrent/picotorrent

A tiny, hackable BitTorrent client.

Repository: https://github.com/picotorrent/picotorrent
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/picotorrent
Homepage: https://picotorrent.org
Language: C++
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: bittorrent, bittorrent-client, portable, rasterbar-libtorrent
Last push: 2024-07-10T23:42:35+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": 4080, "days_push": 784, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2761, forks 198 (observed 2026-08-28T04:07:18.476695+00:00)

## What it is
PicoTorrent is a tiny, hackable BitTorrent client written in modern C++ and built on Rasterbar-libtorrent. It offers a native Windows interface with support for BitTorrent 2.0, DHT, PeX, LSD, and UPnP.

## Use cases
- download torrents on windows with a lightweight client
- portable torrent client that runs without installation
- bittorrent client supporting v2 hybrid torrents
- low memory usage torrent downloader
- hackable open-source torrent client to customize

## When to choose
- you want a minimal, native Windows torrent client
- you need BitTorrent 2.0 / hybrid torrent support
- you prefer a portable app with low resource usage
- you want a small C++ codebase to hack on

## When to avoid
- you need a cross-platform GUI client (Windows only)
- you want a feature-rich client with plugins, streaming, or remote management
- you need a headless/seedbox torrent daemon

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: maintenance
- function: gui, p2p, networking
- domain: cross-platform, developer-tools
- platform: windows, cpp
- tags: bittorrent, libtorrent, torrent-client, portable

## Member repositories
- picotorrent/picotorrent (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:18.476695+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 2026-08-30T08:18:44.779488+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/picotorrent/picotorrent (fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:18.476695+00:00, sha f3daf3441b07)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.