# Smithay/smithay

A smithy for rusty wayland compositors

Repository: https://github.com/Smithay/smithay
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/smithay
Language: Rust
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: wayland-compositor, rust, wayland
Last push: 2026-08-26T12:10:59+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 74/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 28, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3512, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 435, "gap_med": 57, "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 3196, forks 366 (observed 2026-08-28T04:07:48.338813+00:00)

## What it is
Smithay is a Rust library providing building blocks for creating Wayland compositors, implementing core Wayland protocols and common extensions in a modular, high-level way. It is not a full compositor itself but ships with a sample compositor (anvil) and powers projects like the Cosmic desktop environment.

## Use cases
- build a custom wayland compositor in rust
- create a linux desktop environment from scratch
- implement wayland protocol extensions in a display server
- develop a mobile wayland compositor
- prototype a window manager without writing low-level wayland code

## When to choose
- you want to write a Wayland compositor in Rust with memory safety guarantees
- you need modular building blocks rather than an opinionated framework
- you want high-level abstractions over core Wayland protocols and wlroots/KDE extensions

## When to avoid
- you need a ready-to-use desktop compositor rather than a library
- you are building an X11 window manager rather than a Wayland compositor
- you prefer C/C++ ecosystems like wlroots

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: graphics, gui, developer-tools
- domain: graphics, desktop-applications, cross-platform, operating-systems
- platform: rust, cpp
- tags: wayland, wayland-compositor, display-server, rust, compositor-library, linux-desktop, linux

## Member repositories
- Smithay/smithay (main) score 74

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:48.338813+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 2026-08-30T07:24:53.208968+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/Smithay/smithay (fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:48.338813+00:00, sha eb2ff9bd8d7c)
  - registry_crates: https://crates.io/api/v1/crates/smithay (fetched 2026-08-29T09:38:33.394467+00:00, sha 575080bb87d3)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.