# syntaxhighlighter/syntaxhighlighter

SyntaxHighlighter is a fully functional self-contained code syntax highlighter developed in JavaScript.

Repository: https://github.com/syntaxhighlighter/syntaxhighlighter
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/syntaxhighlighter
Language: JavaScript
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2020-04-18T00:30:20+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:39:23.370411+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5740, "days_push": 2329, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 5300, forks 1251 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:15.300563+00:00)

## What it is
SyntaxHighlighter is a self-contained, client-side JavaScript library for highlighting code snippets on web pages and web apps. It has existed since 2004 and supports legacy brushes and themes for rendering code with syntax colors for presentation purposes.

## Use cases
- highlight code snippets on a blog
- display syntax-colored code in web apps
- render code blocks in documentation sites
- colorize source code in the browser without a server
- add code highlighting to a CMS or WordPress site

## When to choose
- you need a mature, battle-tested client-side highlighter with legacy theme/brush compatibility
- you want highlighting without server-side processing
- you maintain an older site already using SyntaxHighlighter v3 brushes

## When to avoid
- you need actively maintained software with frequent updates (last release 2020)
- you want modern alternatives like Prism or Shiki with better ecosystem support
- you need server-side or build-time syntax highlighting

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: maintenance
- function: frontend-framework, ui-components, developer-tools
- domain: web-development, frontend, developer-tools, documentation
- platform: browser
- tags: syntax-highlighting, code-presentation, javascript, client-side, themes, nodejs, web-server

## Member repositories
- syntaxhighlighter/syntaxhighlighter (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:15.300563+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 2026-08-29T17:59:09.238370+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/syntaxhighlighter/syntaxhighlighter (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:15.300563+00:00, sha e6cfb572ffd9)
  - registry_npm: https://registry.npmjs.org/syntaxhighlighter (fetched 2026-08-29T08:54:07.426032+00:00, sha 66cab44fdc16)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.