What is openssl-zig?

This repo is a fork of OpenSSL, the widely used open-source toolkit that powers secure, encrypted communication across the internet, adapted specifically to work as a dependency you can pull directly into projects using the Zig programming language's build system. OpenSSL is the engine behind HTTPS connections, secure email, and countless other services that need to keep data private and tamper-proof. At its core, the toolkit provides three main pieces. The first is a general-purpose cryptography library that handles tasks like encryption, decryption, and creating digital signatures. The second is an implementation of the TLS, DTLS, and QUIC protocols, the rules that let two computers establish a secure, encrypted channel over a network. The third is a command-line tool that acts as a Swiss army knife for things like generating certificates, testing connections, and calculating message digests. The primary audience here is developers working in Zig who need proven, production-grade cryptography in their applications without manually installing and linking system-level OpenSSL libraries. For example, if you are building a Zig web server that needs to serve HTTPS, or a command-line tool that verifies digital signatures, this fork lets you declare OpenSSL as a dependency in your build file and compile it in directly. It is also relevant for embedded development scenarios, given the included build configuration for embedded targets. What makes this fork notable is the packaging approach. OpenSSL is a massive C codebase with a notoriously complex build process. This project wraps that complexity so Zig's build system can fetch, compile, and link it automatically. The README does not go into detail about which specific OpenSSL version this tracks beyond the fork targeting support for a Zig package version, and it largely points back to upstream OpenSSL documentation for usage and API guidance. It is licensed under Apache 2.0, meaning it can be used in both commercial and non-commercial projects.