# gulpjs/vinyl

Virtual file format.

Repository: https://github.com/gulpjs/vinyl
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/vinyl
Language: JavaScript
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2025-05-31T22:56:03+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 34/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 24, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4639, "days_push": 459, "days_rel": 459, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 1}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1296, forks 102 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:16.548804+00:00)

## What it is
Vinyl is a simple JavaScript library that provides a metadata object describing a file with path and contents attributes, regardless of whether the file exists on a local filesystem or a remote source like S3 or FTP. It is the core file abstraction used by the Gulp build system and its adapters.

## Use cases
- represent in-memory files during a build pipeline
- describe files from remote sources like S3 or FTP
- build custom gulp plugins that transform file contents
- track path history of files as they are renamed
- abstract file metadata including stat, cwd, and base

## When to choose
- building gulp plugins or vinyl adapters
- needing a uniform file abstraction across local and cloud sources
- writing stream-based file transformation tools in Node.js

## When to avoid
- needing actual filesystem I/O (use vinyl-fs or fs directly)
- working outside the Node.js/gulp ecosystem
- handling very large files that need true streaming contents

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: file-system, serialization, developer-tools
- domain: developer-tools, files, web-development
- platform: -
- tags: virtual-file, gulp, stream-processing, file-metadata, nodejs, javascript

## Member repositories
- gulpjs/vinyl (main) score 34

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:16.548804+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 2026-08-30T04:53:57.559004+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/gulpjs/vinyl (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:16.548804+00:00, sha e489ce9827d8)
  - registry_npm: https://registry.npmjs.org/vinyl (fetched 2026-08-29T12:10:47.011141+00:00, sha ec3cbb5cc072)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.