# Vial

Vial is an open-source cross-platform (Windows, Linux and Mac) GUI and a QMK fork for configuring your keyboard in real time.

Repository: https://github.com/vial-kb/vial-gui
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/vial
Homepage: https://get.vial.today
Language: Python
License: GPL-2.0
License Family: copyleft
Last push: 2026-05-25T13:31:30+00:00
Link (homepage): https://get.vial.today
Link (site_page): https://get.vial.today/docs
Link (site_page): https://get.vial.today/docs/porting-to-via.html
Link (site_page): https://get.vial.today/docs/porting-to-vial.html
Link (site_page): https://get.vial.today/docs/encoders.html

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 72/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:39:23.370411+00:00)
- activity 84, release rhythm 41, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2149, "days_push": 100, "days_rel": 396, "gap_med": 20, "n_releases_24m": 4}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1405, forks 304 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:37.985954+00:00)

## What it is
Vial is an open-source cross-platform GUI application (with a web version) and a QMK firmware fork for configuring mechanical keyboards in real time, including key remapping, macros, layers, RGB lighting, encoders, and MIDI. It also provides porting tools and documentation for keyboard designers to add Vial support to their firmware.

## Use cases
- remap keys on my qmk keyboard without reflashing
- configure rgb lighting on my mechanical keyboard
- set up rotary encoder actions per layer
- add vial support to my custom keyboard firmware
- edit macros and tap-hold settings live on my keyboard
- port a via keyboard definition to vial

## When to choose
- you have a QMK or VIA-compatible keyboard and want live configuration without flashing
- you are a keyboard designer porting a board to dynamic keymap configuration
- you want per-key RGB, encoder, or MIDI configuration through a GUI

## When to avoid
- your keyboard runs firmware that is not QMK/VIA/Vial compatible
- you need to reverse-engineer or flash non-open firmware
- you only need one-time static keymap compilation without live editing

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: active
- function: gui, configuration-management, embedded
- domain: hardware, developer-tools, cross-platform
- platform: windows, cross-platform, python
- tags: keyboard, qmk, firmware, keymap, rgb-lighting, rotary-encoder, via, mechanical-keyboard, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- vial-kb/vial-gui (main) score 72
- vial-kb/vial-qmk (backend) score 75

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:37.985954+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 2026-08-30T04:38:45.425944+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/vial-kb/vial-gui (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:37.985954+00:00, sha b00d0532a73f)
  - homepage: https://get.vial.today (fetched 2026-08-29T11:52:46.730546+00:00, sha cb5112b65cb9)
  - site_page: https://get.vial.today/docs (fetched 2026-08-29T11:52:46.739922+00:00, sha 5ccd075f3463)
  - site_page: https://get.vial.today/docs/porting-to-via.html (fetched 2026-08-29T11:52:46.741908+00:00, sha cf28243948ff)
  - site_page: https://get.vial.today/docs/porting-to-vial.html (fetched 2026-08-29T11:52:46.744071+00:00, sha be166790d0ff)
  - site_page: https://get.vial.today/docs/encoders.html (fetched 2026-08-29T11:52:46.746083+00:00, sha 075eff81faf8)
  - site_page: https://get.vial.today/docs/lighting.html (fetched 2026-08-29T11:52:46.747959+00:00, sha 652373e25dd3)
  - site_page: https://get.vial.today/docs/firmware-size.html (fetched 2026-08-29T11:52:46.750219+00:00, sha e60b2adca896)
  - site_page: https://get.vial.today/docs/midi.html (fetched 2026-08-29T11:52:46.752003+00:00, sha 94d97672d224)
  - site_page: https://get.vial.today/docs/custom_keycode.html (fetched 2026-08-29T11:52:46.753571+00:00, sha 686b3f2e4460)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.