# shipshapecode/tether

A positioning engine to make overlays, tooltips and dropdowns better

Repository: https://github.com/shipshapecode/tether
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/tether
Homepage: https://tetherjs.dev/docs/welcome
Language: JavaScript
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: javascript, position, tooltips, hacktoberfest
Last push: 2026-02-02T11:11:28+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 70/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 65, release rhythm 60, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4705, "days_push": 212, "days_rel": 269, "gap_med": 0.5, "n_releases_24m": 3}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 8481, forks 719 (observed 2026-08-28T04:10:23.071080+00:00)

## What it is
Tether is a small client-side JavaScript library that positions absolutely positioned UI elements (tooltips, dropdowns, popovers) next to target elements on a page. It tracks target movement and handles constraints, flipping, and repositioning on scroll, resize, and other events.

## Use cases
- position tooltips next to elements
- build dropdown menus that stay attached to buttons
- keep popovers visible inside scrollable containers
- prevent overlays from being clipped by the viewport
- position autocomplete suggestions under an input
- build guided product tours with anchored steps

## When to choose
- you need precise element-to-element positioning with viewport and scroll-parent constraints
- you want a tiny (~5kb) dependency-free positioning engine
- you're building tooltips, dropdowns, or popovers from scratch
- you need high-performance positioning with many tethered elements

## When to avoid
- you want a full-featured tooltip or dropdown component with styling out of the box
- you're using a modern CSS-only or framework-native solution that covers your needs
- you need to support legacy browsers older than IE10

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: ui-components, frontend-framework
- domain: frontend, web-development
- platform: browser
- tags: positioning-engine, tooltips, dropdowns, popovers, dom-manipulation, javascript

## Member repositories
- shipshapecode/tether (main) score 70

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:23.071080+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 2026-08-29T17:27:08.996293+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/shipshapecode/tether (fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:23.071080+00:00, sha 730c41718d1b)
  - homepage: https://tetherjs.dev/docs/welcome (fetched 2026-08-29T08:27:13.393305+00:00, sha 4e94a589f26a)
  - registry_npm: https://registry.npmjs.org/tether (fetched 2026-08-29T08:27:13.397978+00:00, sha a1ef02af36ff)
  - site_page: https://tetherjs.dev/ (fetched 2026-08-29T08:27:13.395757+00:00, sha 02d7cc907987)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.