# WasmEdge/WasmEdge

WasmEdge is a lightweight, high-performance, and extensible WebAssembly runtime for cloud native, edge, and decentralized applications. It powers serverless apps, embedded functions, microservices, smart contracts, and IoT devices.

Repository: https://github.com/WasmEdge/WasmEdge
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/wasmedge
Homepage: https://WasmEdge.org
Language: C++
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: webassembly, wasm, artificial-intelligence, rust-lang, cncf, cloud, cloud-native, edge-computing, ewasm, serverless, hacktoberfest, kubernetes, container, docker, hacktoberfest2023
Last push: 2026-08-26T19:32:41+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 97/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 92, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2469, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 58, "gap_med": 23, "n_releases_24m": 10}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 10787, forks 1161 (observed 2026-08-28T04:10:44.291815+00:00)

## What it is
WasmEdge is a lightweight, high-performance, extensible WebAssembly runtime hosted by CNCF, designed for cloud native, edge, and decentralized applications. It runs Wasm apps compiled from Rust, C/C++, Go, and JavaScript, and powers serverless functions, microservices, embedded functions, smart contracts, IoT devices, and LLM inference via the LlamaEdge framework.

## Use cases
- run webassembly apps on edge devices
- run llm models locally on my own device
- embed wasm functions into a go or rust host application
- run serverless functions faster than containers
- run javascript/node.js apps in a lightweight sandbox
- deploy wasm microservices to kubernetes
- run smart contracts on blockchain
- execute ai inference in a sandboxed runtime

## When to choose
- you need a fast, lightweight alternative to Linux containers for serverless or edge workloads
- you want to embed sandboxed plugin functions in a host app written in C, Rust, Go, Java, or Python
- you want to run LLMs or AI models locally across GPUs with LlamaEdge
- you need Wasm support in the Docker/Kubernetes cloud native ecosystem

## When to avoid
- you need a general-purpose browser-side WebAssembly runtime rather than a server/edge runtime
- your stack depends on ecosystem tooling built for Wasmtime or Wasmtime-compatible APIs
- you need full POSIX/OS compatibility beyond what WASI and WasmEdge extensions provide

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: wasm, llm-inference, container-runtime, sdk, interpreter
- domain: cloud-computing, developer-tools, large-language-models, iot, blockchain
- platform: windows, cross-platform, cpp, rust, go, python, cli
- tags: webassembly-runtime, wasi, edge-computing, serverless, cncf, smart-contracts, wasi-nn, quickjs, containers, linux, macos, docker, kubernetes

## Member repositories
- WasmEdge/WasmEdge (main) score 97

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:44.291815+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 2026-08-29T17:17:51.364415+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/WasmEdge/WasmEdge (fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:44.291815+00:00, sha 658509478ad7)
  - homepage: https://WasmEdge.org (fetched 2026-08-29T08:16:48.973202+00:00, sha 0589cd3fe0c8)
  - site_page: https://wasmedge.org/docs (fetched 2026-08-29T08:16:48.975854+00:00, sha 772d4f7dc0d7)
  - site_page: https://wasmedge.org/docs/start/install (fetched 2026-08-29T08:16:48.977644+00:00, sha f7d0adc4feb6)
  - site_page: https://wasmedge.org/docs/develop/overview (fetched 2026-08-29T08:16:48.979738+00:00, sha 0eecb72363bb)
  - site_page: https://wasmedge.org/docs/category/develop-wasm-apps-in-cc (fetched 2026-08-29T08:16:48.981328+00:00, sha 923e8725a315)
  - site_page: https://wasmedge.org/docs/category/develop-wasm-apps-in-rust (fetched 2026-08-29T08:16:48.982933+00:00, sha 760fdc6a4b03)
  - site_page: https://wasmedge.org/docs/category/develop-wasm-apps-in-go (fetched 2026-08-29T08:16:48.984632+00:00, sha d8df8e5ac51b)
  - site_page: https://wasmedge.org/docs/category/develop-wasm-apps-in-javascript (fetched 2026-08-29T08:16:48.986299+00:00, sha 8d0b9ab4f9e7)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.