# microsoft/win32metadata

Tooling to generate metadata for Win32 APIs in the Windows SDK.

Repository: https://github.com/microsoft/win32metadata
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/win32metadata
Language: C++
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Last push: 2026-08-25T20:02:55+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 95/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 86, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2277, "days_push": 8, "days_rel": 15, "gap_med": 42.0, "n_releases_24m": 11}
- 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 1492, forks 149 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:52.665671+00:00)

## What it is
Microsoft's tooling that generates machine-readable metadata (.winmd) for Win32 APIs in the Windows SDK. It enables automated generation of idiomatic, strongly-typed language bindings (projections) for calling Win32 APIs from languages like C#, Rust, Python, and Dart.

## Use cases
- generate strongly-typed Win32 API bindings for my language instead of hand-writing P/Invoke signatures
- call Windows APIs from Rust or C# with safe, validated signatures
- browse Win32 API metadata to see constants, enums, and handle types
- automate interop bindings for the Windows SDK
- replace manually maintained pinvoke or winapi-rs style bindings

## When to choose
- you are building or maintaining language bindings for Win32 APIs
- you want complete, Microsoft-maintained Win32 API coverage instead of hand-written signatures
- you need strongly-typed handles and enums for Windows interop

## When to avoid
- you are targeting non-Windows platforms
- you only need a few Win32 calls and an existing projection already covers them
- you need runtime libraries rather than compile-time API metadata

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: sdk, parser, developer-tools
- domain: developer-tools, windows, apis, programming-languages
- platform: windows, cpp, cli
- tags: win32, metadata, interop, pinvoke, windows-sdk, language-projections, ffi, code-generation

## Member repositories
- microsoft/win32metadata (main) score 95

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:52.665671+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 2026-08-30T04:33:30.846859+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/microsoft/win32metadata (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:52.665671+00:00, sha 37642049e9e1)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.