Chakra (JavaScript engine)

Chakra
Developer(s)	Microsoft
Stable release	1.11.24 / December 8, 2020; 4 years ago (2020-12-08)[1]
Repository	github.com/chakra-core/ChakraCore
Written in	C++
Operating system	Windows, macOS, Linux
Platform	IA-32, x86-64, ARM, ARM64
Type	JavaScript engine
License	MIT License
Website	github.com/chakra-core/ChakraCore

Chakra was a free and open-source JavaScript engine developed by Microsoft for its Microsoft Edge Legacy web browser. It is a fork of the same-named JScript engine used in Internet Explorer. As with the EdgeHTML browser engine, the declared intention was that it would reflect the "Living Web".^[2] The core components of Chakra were open-sourced as ChakraCore. In 2021, Microsoft terminated support for the engine, citing its transition to a Chromium-based engine for Edge. Support has been transferred to the community, where it remains inactive.^[3]

Chakra supports ECMAScript 5.1 with partial support for ECMAScript 2015.^[4]

Following an initial announcement on December 5, 2015,^[5][6] Microsoft open sourced the Chakra engine as ChakraCore, including all the key components of the JavaScript engine powering Microsoft Edge [Legacy] on their GitHub page under the MIT License on January 13, 2016.^[6][7] ChakraCore is essentially the same as the Chakra engine that powers the Microsoft Edge Legacy browser, but with platform-agnostic bindings, i.e., without the specific interfaces utilized within the Universal Windows App platform.

Microsoft has also created a project on GitHub that allows Node.js to use ChakraCore as its JavaScript engine instead of V8.^[8]

• ChakraCore on GitHub