# mcginty/snow

A Rust implementation of the Noise Protocol Framework

Repository: https://github.com/mcginty/snow
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/snow
Language: Rust
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: cryptography, crypto, noise-protocol-framework, noise-protocol, noise, rust, security
Last push: 2026-07-06T08:14:33+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 64/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 91, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3608, "days_push": 58, "days_rel": 410, "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 1094, forks 144 (observed 2026-08-28T04:03:34.008874+00:00)

## What it is
Snow is a pure-Rust implementation of the Noise Protocol Framework for building encrypted, authenticated channel handshakes. It supports Noise spec revision 34 with swappable cryptographic providers, including an optional ring-based resolver.

## Use cases
- add encrypted handshake to a TCP client/server in Rust
- implement Noise protocol secure channels
- build authenticated encrypted transport between peers
- use Noise with ChaChaPoly and Curve25519
- swap crypto backends via a resolver in Rust

## When to choose
- you need a spec-compliant Noise Protocol implementation in Rust
- you want swappable cryptographic providers (pure-Rust or ring)
- you need encrypted, authenticated key exchange for your protocol

## When to avoid
- you need the fallback modifier, which is not yet implemented
- you require a formally audited crypto library
- you need Noise 448 or other unsupported primitives

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: cryptography, security, sdk
- domain: security, networking, developer-tools
- platform: rust, cross-platform
- tags: noise-protocol, encrypted-handshake, pure-rust, swappable-crypto-providers, ring

## Member repositories
- mcginty/snow (main) score 64

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:34.008874+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 2026-08-30T06:47:37.544258+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/mcginty/snow (fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:34.008874+00:00, sha 8f0144b0078a)
  - registry_crates: https://crates.io/api/v1/crates/snow (fetched 2026-08-29T12:50:30.644012+00:00, sha a51c5214d94d)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.