# PortAudio/portaudio

PortAudio is a cross-platform, open-source C language library for real-time audio input and output.

Repository: https://github.com/PortAudio/portaudio
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/portaudio
Language: C
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Last push: 2026-08-21T01:55:24+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 67/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 98, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2170, "days_push": 13, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2135, forks 402 (observed 2026-08-28T04:06:17.450639+00:00)

## What it is
PortAudio is a cross-platform open-source C library for real-time audio input and output. It supports callback-based and blocking read/write audio processing across many host APIs including ALSA, Core Audio, WASAPI, and ASIO.

## Use cases
- play and record audio in a cross-platform C application
- capture microphone input in real time
- play back audio with low latency
- write a cross-platform audio engine
- interface with ALSA, Core Audio, or WASAPI from portable code

## When to choose
- you need portable real-time audio I/O in C or C++ across Windows, macOS, and Linux
- you want a mature, widely-adopted audio library with many host API backends
- you need both callback-driven and blocking audio models

## When to avoid
- you need high-level audio mixing, effects, or decoding rather than raw I/O
- you are working in a managed language with better-native audio bindings available
- you need MIDI-only functionality

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: audio-processing, sdk
- domain: cross-platform, developer-tools
- platform: cross-platform, windows, cpp, c
- tags: real-time-audio, audio-io, alsa, coreaudio, wasapi, callback-audio, audio, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- PortAudio/portaudio (main) score 67

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:17.450639+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 2026-08-30T02:51:53.861441+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/PortAudio/portaudio (fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:17.450639+00:00, sha 40249ab13237)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.