Open Source C Projects
C is a general-purpose programming language used to build software that needs direct access to memory and hardware, predictable performance, or a small runtime. Its portability and mature compiler ecosystem make it common in operating systems, embedded devices, networking, databases, multimedia, and other systems software. C also serves as a foundation for libraries and tools used from other languages.
Open source C projects include libraries, command-line utilities, development tools, storage engines, security software, and applications for different platforms. When choosing one, check its license, documentation, supported compilers and operating systems, maintenance activity, dependencies, and compatibility with your existing code. Consider how its memory management and error-handling conventions fit your needs. These projects are useful to systems programmers, embedded developers, researchers, and teams maintaining or extending software written in C.
12 repositories · updated October 13, 2026
ds4: Run DeepSeek and Other LLMs on Local Hardware
A native C inference engine for selected open-weight models on Apple Metal, NVIDIA CUDA, and AMD ROCm. It suits people with high-memory machines who want local inference, serving, or a coding agent without a general-purpose GGUF runner.
NewHealth 57/100
python-Levenshtein: Fast String Distance and Similarity in Python
A C extension for Python that computes Levenshtein edit distance, string similarity, and related string operations. It suits developers who need these calculations in Python or as a standalone C library, with maintenance and GPL licensing caveats to consider.
InactiveHealth 27/100
awesome-c: Find C Libraries, Tools, and Learning Resources
A curated directory of open-source C libraries, tools, and learning materials, organized by use. Use it to survey options across areas such as networking, graphics, testing, and databases before choosing a dependency.
MaintainedHealth 39/100
colibri: Run Large MoE Models on Local Hardware
colibri is a C inference engine that streams mixture-of-experts model weights from disk, letting large open models run on machines with limited RAM and no required GPU. It also provides a local dashboard and OpenAI- and Anthropic-compatible APIs.
NewHealth 79/100
codebase-memory-mcp: Build a Searchable Code Knowledge Graph
A local MCP server that indexes repositories into a persistent graph of code structure and relationships. It helps AI coding agents answer architectural and code-navigation questions with focused queries instead of repeated file searches.
ActiveHealth 68/100
pg_textsearch: Add BM25 Ranked Search to PostgreSQL
pg_textsearch is a PostgreSQL extension that adds BM25 relevance ranking and indexed full-text search. It suits teams that want ranked text queries inside PostgreSQL, using its text search configurations and SQL workflows.
ActiveHealth 58/100
wireguard-tools: Configure WireGuard VPN Tunnels
WireGuard’s userspace tools configure and manage WireGuard tunnels across Linux, BSD, macOS, Windows, and Android. This is the GitHub mirror; the official repository is hosted at git.zx2c4.com.
QuietHealth 27/100
ascii-chat: Video Chat in Your Terminal
ascii-chat turns webcam video into colored terminal art for live, multi-person calls over a client-server network. It also supports audio, encryption, and media from files or URLs, but setup involves a substantial native dependency stack.
ActiveHealth 59/100
pomodoro: Build an ESP32 E-Paper Focus Timer
A DIY Pomodoro-style timer for an ESP32, with an e-paper display, rotary dial, presets, breaks, and an LED alert. It suits makers who want a physical desk timer and are prepared to adapt incomplete firmware and source or regenerate its assets.
InactiveHealth 19/100
sshpot: Log SSH Login Attempts with a Honeypot
sshpot is a small C-based SSH honeypot that rejects every login while recording attempted usernames, passwords, IP addresses, and times. It may suit controlled research or monitoring, but its long inactivity makes it a poor fit for systems needing ongoing maintenance.
InactiveHealth 21/100
ten-vad: Detect Speech Activity in Real Time
TEN VAD is a low-latency voice activity detector for streaming audio and conversational voice systems. It offers C interfaces across several platforms, plus Python, Java, Go and JavaScript options.
QuietHealth 28/100
jellyfin-ffmpeg: Process Media for Jellyfin
Jellyfin-ffmpeg is a Jellyfin-focused FFmpeg build with custom extensions and enhancements. It provides media-processing libraries and command-line tools for applications that need to convert, inspect, filter, or stream audio and video.
ActiveHealth 67/100