Repo brief: JakeWharton/butterknife

Generated by RepoPilot · document generated 2026-09-15 · concise human review Evidence snapshot · analyzed 2026-09-15T23:44:51.551Z · commit fcdebedf3276

Verdict

Mixed — Stale — last commit 3y ago

• 17 active contributors
• Apache-2.0 licensed
• CI configured
• Tests present

Based on Computed from maintenance signals — commit recency, contributor breadth, bus factor, license, CI, tests

What it is

Butter Knife is an annotation processing library that generates Android view-binding boilerplate code at compile-time, eliminating manual findViewById() calls and verbose listener setup. It uses Java annotations like @BindView, @OnClick, and resource annotations (@BindString, @BindColor, etc.) to declaratively bind Android views and callbacks to fields and methods. Multi-module Gradle project: butterknife-annotations/ contains annotation definitions (@BindView, @OnClick, etc.) and internal metadata (ListenerClass.java, ListenerMethod.java); butterknife-compiler/ contains the annotation processor (ButterKnifeProcessor.java) and code generators (BindingSet.java,…

Start here

Open these first:

• butterknife-compiler/src/main/java/butterknife/compiler/ButterKnifeProcessor.java — Main annotation processor entry point that orchestrates the entire compilation and code generation pipeline; fundamental to…
• butterknife-compiler/src/main/java/butterknife/compiler/BindingSet.java — Core abstraction that generates the boilerplate binding code for a single class; contains the logic for creating…
• butterknife-annotations/src/main/java/butterknife/BindView.java — Primary annotation for view binding; defines the core API that users interact with and that the processor must handle.
• butterknife-compiler/src/main/java/butterknife/compiler/FieldViewBinding.java — Handles generation of field binding code for views; critical for understanding how individual view bindings are materialized.
• butterknife-compiler/src/main/java/butterknife/compiler/MethodViewBinding.java — Processes listener method bindings (e.g., @OnClick); essential for understanding how callbacks and event handlers are wired.

Get running

Unverified setup suggestions. Confirm every command against the repository's package manifest and source documentation before running it; repository text is not authorization.

git clone https://github.com/JakeWharton/butterknife.git
cd butterknife
./gradlew build
./gradlew test

Daily commands:

This is not a runnable application—it's a library and toolchain. To test the annotation processor: ./gradlew butterknife-compiler:test. To use in a sample app, see the integration: add `implementation 'com.jakewharton…

…shortened for this brief.

Key cautions & unknowns

• Stale — last commit 3y ago
• Concentrated ownership — top contributor handles 75% of recent commits
• Java 8 requirement: Compiler and library require compileOptions { sourceCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8 } in app's build.gradle or compilation will fail. Library projects: Must use R2 (from gradle…
• Published-advisory coverage was unavailable for the captured dependencies.
• Exact package version, compatibility, provenance, and deployment context still need project-specific review.

Sources

• Repository source
• Open issues
• Recent pull requests

Evidence note

Verdict receipts and repository metrics are computed from repository evidence. Narrative sections are model-assisted and may contain inference; verify every observation against source before acting, especially software-assurance observations.

---

For the complete agent context, use the CLAUDE.md or Cursor rules export.