# tilo/smarter_csv

Fastest end-to-end CSV ingestion for Ruby (with C acceleration). SmarterCSV auto-detects formats, applies smart defaults, and returns Rails-ready hashes for seamless use with ActiveRecord, Sidekiq, parallel jobs, and S3 pipelines — even for messy user-uploaded real-world data.

Repository: https://github.com/tilo/smarter_csv
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/smarter_csv
Language: Ruby
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: csv, csv-converter, csv-export, csv-file, csv-files, csv-format, csv-import, csv-parser, csv-parsing, csv-processing, csv-processor, csv-reader, csv-reading, csv-writer, csv-writing, csv-file-han, cvs-ingestion
Last push: 2026-08-21T16:14:09+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 76/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 98, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5148, "days_push": 12, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1551, forks 192 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:02.188519+00:00)

## What it is
SmarterCSV is a Ruby gem for fast, robust CSV parsing and generation, with optional C acceleration and auto-detection of messy real-world CSV formats. It returns Rails-ready hashes per row and guards against silent data corruption common in Ruby's built-in CSV library.

## Use cases
- parse large csv files in ruby fast
- import user-uploaded csv files into rails activerecord
- convert csv rows to hashes for sidekiq jobs
- handle messy csv files with duplicate headers and BOMs
- preserve full decimal precision for gps or financial data
- export data to csv in ruby
- process csv files in parallel

## When to choose
- you need fast, reliable CSV ingestion of real-world messy data in Ruby
- you want hashes instead of arrays for ActiveRecord or Sidekiq pipelines
- you need to avoid silent data loss like float precision rounding or duplicate headers

## When to avoid
- you only need trivial CSV parsing and the standard library suffices
- your project is not in Ruby

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: parser, serialization, developer-tools
- domain: files, developer-tools, backend
- platform: ruby, cross-platform
- tags: csv, csv-parsing, csv-import, csv-export, rails, bigdecimal, high-performance, data-ingestion, data-engineering

## Member repositories
- tilo/smarter_csv (main) score 76

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:02.188519+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 2026-08-30T04:30:17.476393+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/tilo/smarter_csv (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:02.188519+00:00, sha 4f8e6582fed0)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.