# ZeroMQ

ZeroMQ core engine in C++, implements ZMTP/3.1

Repository: https://github.com/zeromq/libzmq
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/zeromq
Homepage: https://www.zeromq.org
Language: C++
License: MPL-2.0
License Family: copyleft
Topics: zeromq, zmq, messaging, concurrency, pubsub, pushpull, stream, libzmq, zmtp, network, networking
Last push: 2026-07-26T12:58:13+00:00
Link (homepage): https://www.zeromq.org
Link (site_page): https://zeromq.org/get-started

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 65/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 94, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 6244, "days_push": 38, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 10972, forks 2487 (observed 2026-08-28T04:10:44.919814+00:00)

## What it is
ZeroMQ (libzmq) is a high-performance, brokerless asynchronous messaging library implementing the ZMTP protocol, providing socket-like abstractions with messaging patterns such as pub/sub, push/pull, and request/reply over TCP, IPC, inproc, multicast, and WebSocket transports. It serves as the core engine for a large family of language bindings including pyzmq, jeromq, cppzmq, zeromq.js, zmq.rs, and czmq.

## Use cases
- build distributed systems with brokerless message passing
- implement pub/sub messaging between services
- distribute tasks across worker processes with push/pull
- send messages between threads and processes efficiently
- connect microservices over TCP without a message broker
- build high-performance request/reply communication
- pass messages between applications in different languages

## When to choose
- you need fast, low-latency messaging without running a dedicated broker
- you want flexible messaging patterns (pub/sub, req/rep, pipeline) across many transports
- you need bindings for many programming languages from one core library
- you are building concurrent or multicore applications with asynchronous message processing

## When to avoid
- you need persistent message queues with durable storage and guaranteed delivery
- you require a full-featured message broker with a management UI and clustering
- you want simple point-to-point HTTP or REST communication
- you need built-in message routing based on complex business rules

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: message-queue, networking, concurrency, websocket, rpc
- domain: microservices, networking, developer-tools
- platform: windows, cross-platform, cpp, python, jvm, rust
- tags: zeromq, zmq, zmtp, pubsub, brokerless-messaging, ipc, sockets, high-performance, messaging, linux, macos, android, nodejs

## Member repositories
- zeromq/libzmq (main) score 65
- zeromq/pyzmq (sdk) score 94
- zeromq/jeromq (sdk) score 57
- zeromq/cppzmq (sdk) score 61
- zeromq/zeromq.js (sdk) score 98
- zeromq/zmq.rs (sdk) score 78
- zeromq/czmq (sdk) score 57

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:44.919814+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 2026-08-29T17:17:16.069116+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/zeromq/libzmq (fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:44.919814+00:00, sha 39ced2195785)
  - homepage: https://www.zeromq.org (fetched 2026-08-29T08:16:16.987541+00:00, sha 6b4406e17fa6)
  - site_page: https://zeromq.org/get-started (fetched 2026-08-29T08:16:16.990293+00:00, sha 2b37b1c9a741)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.