# mikeal/watch

Utilities for watching file trees in node.js

Repository: https://github.com/mikeal/watch
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/watch
Language: JavaScript
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2023-01-22T07:55:38+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5798, "days_push": 1319, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1280, forks 149 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:13.620908+00:00)

## What it is
A Node.js library providing utilities for watching file and directory trees, with polling-based change detection and an EventEmitter-based monitor API. It supports filtering, ignoring dot files or unreadable directories, and callbacks for created, removed, and changed files.

## Use cases
- watch a directory for file changes in node.js
- trigger a task when files change
- monitor a folder tree for created or deleted files
- ignore node_modules while watching files
- build a file-watching dev tool

## When to choose
- you need a simple, dependency-light file tree watcher in Node.js
- you want an EventEmitter API for file create/remove/change events
- polling-based watching is acceptable for your use case

## When to avoid
- you need high-performance, event-driven watching (prefer chokidar or fs.watch)
- you need cross-platform recursive watching with native OS events
- you need active development and frequent updates

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: maintenance
- function: file-system, developer-tools
- domain: developer-tools, files, backend
- platform: cross-platform
- tags: file-watching, fs-watch, directory-monitoring, polling, nodejs

## Member repositories
- mikeal/watch (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:13.620908+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 2026-08-30T05:02:38.128209+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/mikeal/watch (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:13.620908+00:00, sha 733419648f6c)
  - registry_npm: https://registry.npmjs.org/watch (fetched 2026-08-29T12:13:22.002216+00:00, sha 188cec497bb7)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.