# Shadowsocks

Bug-fix-only libev port of shadowsocks. Future development moved to shadowsocks-rust

Repository: https://github.com/shadowsocks/shadowsocks-libev
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/shadowsocks-2
Homepage: https://github.com/shadowsocks/shadowsocks-rust
Language: C
License: GPL-3.0
License Family: copyleft
Topics: c, shadowsocks
Last push: 2026-08-20T01:18:33+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 77/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 98, release rhythm 37, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5009, "days_push": 14, "days_rel": 206, "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 16180, forks 6231 (observed 2026-08-28T04:11:14.894574+00:00)

## What it is
Shadowsocks is a family of encrypted SOCKS5 proxy clients and servers for circumventing internet censorship, with implementations in C#, Rust, C/libev, Go, and more. The Windows client provides a system tray GUI with system proxy configuration, PAC rule modes, server auto-switching, and UDP relay support.

## Use cases
- bypass internet censorship with an encrypted proxy
- route browser traffic through a socks5 proxy on windows
- split traffic so domestic sites connect directly and foreign sites use the proxy
- set up a lightweight proxy server on a linux vps or openwrt router
- automatically switch between proxy servers based on latency and packet loss

## When to choose
- you need a fast, lightweight encrypted proxy to circumvent firewalls
- you want per-app or system-wide proxying with PAC-based routing rules
- you need clients across windows, android, linux, and embedded routers from one ecosystem

## When to avoid
- you need a full VPN with tunnel-level encryption of all traffic rather than a SOCKS/HTTP proxy
- you want a zero-configuration tool - shadowsocks requires your own server and keys
- you need official support or a permissive license - the licensing is nonstandard

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: active
- function: proxy, vpn, networking, security, privacy
- domain: privacy, censorship-circumvention, networking, security, cross-platform
- platform: windows, cross-platform
- tags: shadowsocks, socks5-proxy, censorship-circumvention, encrypted-proxy, pac, udp-relay, system-proxy, server-switching, android, linux, macos, openwrt

## Member repositories
- shadowsocks/shadowsocks-libev (main) score 77
- shadowsocks/shadowsocks-windows (frontend) score 23
- shadowsocks/shadowsocks-android (frontend) score 76
- shadowsocks/shadowsocks (mirror) score 23
- shadowsocks/shadowsocks-rust (main) score 95
- shadowsocks/openwrt-shadowsocks (plugin) score 23
- shadowsocks/shadowsocks-nodejs (mirror) score 32
- shadowsocks/luci-app-shadowsocks (plugin) score 23
- shadowsocks/shadowsocks-org (docs) score 75

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:14.894574+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 2026-08-29T16:18:12.564787+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/shadowsocks/shadowsocks-libev (fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:14.894574+00:00, sha bbb363090d3f)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.