# Kitt-AI/snowboy

Future versions with model training module will be maintained through a forked version here: https://github.com/seasalt-ai/snowboy

Repository: https://github.com/Kitt-AI/snowboy
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/snowboy
Language: C++
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Last push: 2021-10-13T11:44:20+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3768, "days_push": 1785, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 3364, forks 1039 (observed 2026-08-28T04:07:58.225160+00:00)

## What it is
Snowboy is a C++-based hotword (wake word) detection library by KITT.AI with bindings for Python, Android, and other platforms, enabling always-on voice activation for devices like Raspberry Pi. The original product was shut down at the end of 2020, and future maintenance continues in a community fork at seasalt-ai/snowboy.

## Use cases
- detect a custom wake word like 'Alexa' on a Raspberry Pi
- add hands-free voice activation to a voice assistant
- run always-on keyword spotting on embedded devices
- train a personal hotword detection model
- integrate wake word detection into an Android app

## When to choose
- you need lightweight, offline wake word detection on resource-constrained hardware
- you want to train a custom hotword model
- you are okay using the maintained fork (seasalt-ai/snowboy)

## When to avoid
- you need actively maintained software with official support
- you need full speech recognition rather than wake word detection
- you require a permissive license (license is non-standard)

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: abandoned
- function: speech-recognition, audio-processing, machine-learning
- domain: speech-processing, artificial-intelligence, embedded-systems
- platform: cross-platform, windows, python, cpp, embedded
- tags: hotword-detection, wake-word, keyword-spotting, voice-assistant, always-on-listening, discontinued, linux, macos, android

## Member repositories
- Kitt-AI/snowboy (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:58.225160+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 2026-08-29T18:40:18.531137+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/Kitt-AI/snowboy (fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:58.225160+00:00, sha 0e0230ed301c)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.