# steinbergmedia/vstgui

A user interface toolkit mainly for audio plug-ins

Repository: https://github.com/steinbergmedia/vstgui
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/vstgui
Language: C++
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Topics: vstgui, vst3, aax, audiounit, ui-library, plugins
Last push: 2026-08-09T15:28:29+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 87/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 96, release rhythm 69, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3912, "days_push": 24, "days_rel": 49, "gap_med": 114.5, "n_releases_24m": 5}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1088, forks 149 (observed 2026-08-28T04:03:32.528462+00:00)

## What it is
VSTGUI is a C++ user interface toolkit designed primarily for building UIs for audio plug-ins such as VST 3, AudioUnit, and AAX. Originally developed by Steinberg in 1998, it has been open source since 2003 and runs on Windows, macOS, iOS, and Linux.

## Use cases
- build a gui for a vst3 audio plugin
- create custom ui for an audiounit effect
- design plugin interfaces for pro tools aax
- cross-platform audio plugin ui toolkit in c++
- make knobs and sliders for a synthesizer plugin
- ios audio app interface toolkit

## When to choose
- you are developing VST 3, AudioUnit, or AAX audio plug-ins and need a native-feeling UI
- you need a mature, battle-tested C++ toolkit with cross-platform support including iOS
- you want tight integration with the Steinberg VST 3 SDK and its wrappers

## When to avoid
- you are building a general-purpose desktop application rather than an audio plug-in
- you need a Linux UI toolkit for production (Linux support is still a preview)
- you prefer higher-level languages or frameworks like Qt, JUCE, or web-based UIs

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: ui-components, graphics, plugin-system
- domain: cross-platform, developer-tools
- platform: cpp, windows, cross-platform
- tags: audio-plugins, vst3, audiounit, aax, gui-toolkit, steinberg, music-production, dsp, audio, game-development, macos, linux, ios

## Member repositories
- steinbergmedia/vstgui (main) score 87

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:32.528462+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 2026-08-30T06:49:23.313142+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/steinbergmedia/vstgui (fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:32.528462+00:00, sha 3c3fce145e0a)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.