# evansd/whitenoise

Radically simplified static file serving for Python web apps

Repository: https://github.com/evansd/whitenoise
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/whitenoise
Homepage: https://whitenoise.readthedocs.io
Language: Python
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: django
Last push: 2026-08-18T20:32:58+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 76/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 98, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4773, "days_push": 15, "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 2760, forks 155 (observed 2026-08-28T04:07:18.402874+00:00)

## What it is
WhiteNoise is a Python library that lets WSGI-compatible web apps serve their own static files without needing nginx, S3, or other external services. It handles best practices like gzip/Brotli compression and far-future cache headers, with special auto-configuration for Django.

## Use cases
- serve static files from a Django app without nginx
- deploy a Python web app as a self-contained unit on Heroku
- replace S3 static file hosting for a small WSGI app
- add gzip and Brotli compression to static asset serving
- set far-future cache headers for hashed static assets
- simplify static file deployment on PaaS providers

## When to choose
- you want a Python web app to be self-contained and deployable anywhere
- you're on Heroku or another PaaS and want to avoid extra static file infrastructure
- you want correct compression and caching headers handled automatically
- you use Django and want zero-config static file serving

## When to avoid
- you have very high traffic and prefer a dedicated CDN or nginx setup as the primary server
- your static assets are already served by a CDN or object storage pipeline
- you're not using a WSGI-compatible Python framework

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: http-server, middleware, caching, compression
- domain: web-development, backend, developer-tools
- platform: python, cross-platform
- tags: wsgi, django, static-files, static-file-serving, heroku, paas, web-server

## Member repositories
- evansd/whitenoise (main) score 76

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:18.402874+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 2026-08-30T08:18:45.488980+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/evansd/whitenoise (fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:18.402874+00:00, sha 2da724d14da6)
  - registry_pypi: https://pypi.org/pypi/whitenoise/json (fetched 2026-08-29T09:57:03.269060+00:00, sha 7ed66c00000e)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.