# orchidjs/tom-select

Tom Select is a lightweight (~16kb gzipped) hybrid of a textbox and select box. Forked from selectize.js to provide a framework agnostic autocomplete widget with native-feeling keyboard navigation. Useful for tagging, contact lists, etc.

Repository: https://github.com/orchidjs/tom-select
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/tom-select
Homepage: https://tom-select.js.org
Language: JavaScript
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: javascript, select, input, typescript, vanilla-javascript, select2, select-multiple, dropdown, vanilla-js, selectbox, choice, choices
Last push: 2026-08-14T11:39:02+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 96/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 97, release rhythm 92, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2211, "days_push": 19, "days_rel": 57, "gap_med": 12.5, "n_releases_24m": 13}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2212, forks 172 (observed 2026-08-28T04:06:26.852010+00:00)

## What it is
Tom Select is a lightweight (~16kb gzipped), framework-agnostic <select> UI control with autocomplete and native-feeling keyboard navigation, forked from selectize.js. It supports tagging, remote data loading, option searching/ranking, item creation, and a plugin API, all without jQuery.

## Use cases
- replace a select dropdown with a searchable autocomplete input
- let users add tags to a post
- build a multi-select contact picker
- create a country selector with search
- load select options from a server as the user types
- allow users to create new options on the fly
- migrate from selectize.js without jQuery

## When to choose
- you need a lightweight, dependency-free select/autocomplete widget in vanilla JS
- you want tagging or multi-select with keyboard navigation
- you need remote option loading or on-the-fly item creation
- you're replacing selectize.js and want an actively maintained fork

## When to avoid
- you're in a React/Vue app and prefer a framework-native component
- you need a full-featured combobox with async tree data or virtualized lists
- you must support legacy browsers like IE11

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: ui-components, form-handling, search-engine
- domain: web-development, frontend
- platform: browser
- tags: select-box, autocomplete, tagging, dropdown, selectize-fork, vanilla-js, multi-select, form-control, javascript, typescript

## Member repositories
- orchidjs/tom-select (main) score 96

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:26.852010+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 2026-08-30T02:46:02.968084+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/orchidjs/tom-select (fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:26.852010+00:00, sha 16ae5c05fd23)
  - homepage: https://tom-select.js.org (fetched 2026-08-29T10:26:43.716152+00:00, sha 1910701d67af)
  - site_page: https://tom-select.js.org/docs (fetched 2026-08-29T10:26:43.725278+00:00, sha 5f5b5bc2f457)
  - site_page: https://tom-select.js.org/docs/selectize.js (fetched 2026-08-29T10:26:43.727330+00:00, sha f66524a5336c)
  - site_page: https://tom-select.js.org/docs/plugins (fetched 2026-08-29T10:26:43.729414+00:00, sha 83f9d5947eaa)
  - site_page: https://tom-select.js.org/docs/contribute (fetched 2026-08-29T10:26:43.731222+00:00, sha 35e0879a33b4)
  - registry_npm: https://registry.npmjs.org/tom-select (fetched 2026-08-29T10:26:43.732995+00:00, sha 747358cc440e)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.