Repo brief: preactjs/preact

Generated by RepoPilot · document generated 2026-09-15 · concise human review Evidence snapshot · analyzed 2026-09-15T07:07:01.727Z · commit 8101ff821690

Verdict

Healthy — Healthy across all four use cases

• Used by 2 trusted projects: remix-run/remix, withastro/astro
• Last commit 1d ago
• 5 active contributors
• MIT licensed
• 2 more receipts on the live page

Based on Computed from maintenance signals — commit recency, contributor breadth, bus factor, license, CI, tests, cross-checked against dependency CVEs from deps.dev and OpenSSF Scorecard

What it is

Preact is a 4kB JavaScript library that provides a fast Virtual DOM implementation with a React-compatible API. It delivers the core functionality of React (JSX, components, hooks) with a much smaller footprint by omitting React's overhead, making it ideal for performance-critical applications and resource-constrained environments. Core monorepo structure: src/ contains the main Preact engine (component.js, create-element.js, render.js, diff/) with a dedicated src/diff/ subdirectory for Virtual DOM reconciliation. Separate compat/ directory provides React compatibility shims and server-side rendering. Build artifacts target multiple formats (mjs, d.ts types). Debug and config…

Start here

Open these first:

• src/index.js — Main library entry point exporting core Preact API, component creation, and rendering functions.
• src/diff/index.js — Core Virtual DOM diffing algorithm that drives reconciliation and performance optimization.
• src/component.js — Component class definition and lifecycle method implementations for class-based components.
• src/render.js — Rendering orchestration layer that commits Virtual DOM changes to the actual DOM.
• src/create-element.js — JSX transpilation target and Virtual node factory for creating element descriptors.

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.

No package.json root manifest provided in data; verify the repository structure first. Likely: git clone https://github.com/preactjs/preact.git && cd preact && npm install. Exact build/dev commands should be confirmed…

Daily commands:

Cannot infer exact commands from provided data. Check root package.json for scripts field. Typical Preact dev workflow likely uses npm run dev or npm test, but verify before executing. Build typically targets `dist/…

…shortened for this brief.

Key cautions & unknowns

• Single-maintainer risk — top contributor 95% of recent commits
• No root package.json in evidence: the provided data shows compat/package.json but not the root manifest; true build/test setup cannot be inferred. Dual API surface: changes must maintain compatibility across…
• Exact package version, compatibility, provenance, and deployment context still need project-specific review.

Sources

• Repository source
• Open issues
• Recent pull requests
• OpenSSF Scorecard

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.

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