# vercel/hazel

Lightweight update server for Electron apps

Repository: https://github.com/vercel/hazel
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/vercel-hazel
Homepage: https://twitter.com/notquiteleo/status/893547786255421441
Language: JavaScript
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: electron, updates, github-releases
Last push: 2024-06-10T09:41:41+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3317, "days_push": 814, "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 3019, forks 407 (observed 2026-08-28T04:07:38.433455+00:00)

## What it is
Hazel is a lightweight update server for Electron apps that pulls release data from GitHub Releases and serves update checks to the Electron auto-updater. It caches release info in memory, redirects downloads directly to GitHub assets, and deploys to Vercel Serverless Functions with one click.

## Use cases
- serve auto-updates for an Electron app
- deploy an Electron update server on Vercel
- use GitHub Releases as the backend for app updates
- provide a feed URL for Electron autoUpdater
- distribute macOS and Windows app updates without hosting binaries

## When to choose
- your Electron app releases are published via GitHub Releases
- you want a zero-maintenance, serverless update server
- you want to avoid hosting update binaries yourself

## When to avoid
- you need update channels beyond pre-release filtering or fine-grained rollout control
- your releases are not on GitHub
- you need Linux auto-update support
- you need a self-hosted solution outside Vercel/Node.js

## Facets
- artifact type: service
- maturity: maintenance
- function: http-server, caching, webhook
- domain: developer-tools, desktop-applications, self-hosted
- platform: serverless, windows
- tags: electron-updater, github-releases, update-server, auto-update, vercel, nodejs, web-server, macos

## Member repositories
- vercel/hazel (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:38.433455+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 2026-08-29T18:46:54.553728+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/vercel/hazel (fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:38.433455+00:00, sha 1e90d2384863)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.