# ColleagueRiley/RGFW

A lightweight single-header cross-platform library for general windowing

Repository: https://github.com/ColleagueRiley/RGFW
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/rgfw
Language: C
License: Zlib
License Family: permissive
Topics: opengl, library, macos, silicon, pure-c, unix, graphics, single-header, lightweight, cross-platform, webasm, c99, cocoa, winapi, x11, xlib, windowing, hedgehogsoft
Last push: 2026-07-14T12:51:42+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 76/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 92, release rhythm 46, longevity 92
- inputs: {"age_days": 1288, "days_push": 50, "days_rel": 281, "gap_med": 69, "n_releases_24m": 4}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1863, forks 83 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:46.021605+00:00)

## What it is
RGFW is a lightweight single-header C99 library for cross-platform window creation, graphics context setup (OpenGL, Vulkan, WebGPU, Metal, DirectX), and input/event handling. It wraps only system APIs (WinAPI, X11, Wayland, Cocoa, Emscripten) with no external dependencies and does not perform rendering itself.

## Use cases
- create a cross-platform window with an OpenGL context in C
- handle keyboard and mouse input for a game or tool
- set up a Vulkan or WebGPU surface without heavy dependencies
- build a minimal windowing layer for a software renderer
- compile a single-header windowing library for web via Emscripten
- replace GLFW or SDL with a smaller, hackable windowing library

## When to choose
- you want a tiny, single-header, no-dependency windowing library in C
- you need direct control over the implementation and feature set
- you target Windows, macOS, Linux/X11/Wayland, or WASM
- you use any graphics API and only need window/context/event handling

## When to avoid
- you need built-in rendering, audio, or higher-level game framework features
- you want a large ecosystem, extensive documentation, and battle-tested maturity like SDL or GLFW
- you need advanced platform features such as complex multi-window DPI handling out of the box

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: graphics, gui
- domain: graphics, cross-platform, developer-tools
- platform: windows, wasm, cross-platform, cpp
- tags: single-header, windowing, opengl, vulkan, pure-c, x11, cocoa, winapi, wayland, emscripten, graphics-context, event-handling, game-development, macos, linux

## Member repositories
- ColleagueRiley/RGFW (main) score 76

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:46.021605+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 2026-08-30T03:15:37.631448+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/ColleagueRiley/RGFW (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:46.021605+00:00, sha c68becb37213)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.