# songgao/water

A simple TUN/TAP library written in native Go.

Repository: https://github.com/songgao/water
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/water
Language: Go
License: BSD-3-Clause
License Family: permissive
Topics: go, tun, tap, networking
Last push: 2024-07-30T17:38:50+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4909, "days_push": 764, "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 2167, forks 326 (observed 2026-08-28T04:06:21.399197+00:00)

## What it is
water is a native Go library for creating and reading/writing to TUN/TAP virtual network interfaces using only syscalls and standard Go types. It supports Linux (TUN/TAP), macOS (point-to-point TUN), and Windows (experimental TUN).

## Use cases
- create a tun interface in go
- build a vpn in go
- read ethernet frames from a tap device
- implement a userspace network tunnel
- capture packets from a virtual network interface

## When to choose
- you need low-level TUN/TAP access in a Go program without cgo
- you want a minimal library that composes with io.Reader/Writer
- you're building a VPN, tunnel, or userspace networking tool in Go

## When to avoid
- you need a complete VPN solution rather than a building block
- you need TAP support on macOS or Windows
- you need packet parsing - use a companion library like songgao/packets

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: networking
- domain: networking, developer-tools
- platform: windows, go
- tags: tun, tap, virtual-network-interface, vpn-building-blocks, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- songgao/water (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:21.399197+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 2026-08-30T02:49:55.486120+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/songgao/water (fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:21.399197+00:00, sha 3a0d12478e02)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.