lithos is a self-contained embedded key-value store written from scratch as a native extension — no external database dependency. It uses a log-structured merge (LSM) tree: a write-ahead log makes every write durable, an in-memory sorted memtable flushes to immutable SSTables (with bloom filters), and compaction merges them. Keys and values are arbitrary binary strings; keys are kept in sorted order so you get ordered iteration and range scans, plus crash recovery via WAL replay. Windows MSVC (mswin) Ruby only.

phylax (Greek "guardian") is a thin, safe-by-default binding to the Windows Cryptography API: Next Generation (CNG / bcrypt.dll) and DPAPI. It does not implement any cryptography of its own — it exposes the operating system's own validated primitives through an ergonomic, hard-to-misuse Ruby API: a cryptographically secure RNG, SHA-2 hashing and HMAC (one-shot and streaming), PBKDF2 key derivation, authenticated AES-256-GCM encryption (SecretBox, with nonces generated and framed automatically so reuse is impossible), a constant-time comparison, and DPAPI protect/unprotect for secrets at rest. Windows MSVC (mswin) Ruby only.

vcdeps wires Microsoft's vcpkg package manager into mkmf: declare native dependencies in ext/<gem>/vcpkg.json, call Vcdeps.mkmf! from extconf.rb, and vcdeps locates (or bootstraps) vcpkg, installs the ports out of tree with the correct dynamic-CRT triplet, prepends the include/lib paths so they win over Ruby's own opt-dir, and vendors the runtime DLLs with a generated Fiddle-preload shim so the built extension actually loads. It provides a library API (install!/vendor!/baseline!/tool!), the extconf entry point Vcdeps.mkmf!, and a CLI (vcdeps doctor/where/install/vendor/ baseline/bootstrap). Manifest mode only; builds and caches live under %LOCALAPPDATA%\vcdeps, never inside the gem. Windows MSVC (mswin) Ruby only. Pure Ruby — no compiler required to install vcdeps itself.

winclip is a native Windows clipboard library for Ruby. It gets and sets Unicode text, images (as PNG bytes, converted to/from CF_DIB/CF_DIBV5 via WIC), and file lists (CF_HDROP), plus clear, format introspection, and has_text?/has_image?/has_files? queries. The PNG image interface pairs directly with the windraw gem. Windows MSVC (mswin) Ruby only.

windraw renders shapes and text into an off-screen bitmap using the graphics stack that already ships with Windows — Direct2D for vector drawing, DirectWrite for text, and WIC for PNG encoding — then saves a PNG to a file or returns the bytes as a string. A Cairo-style 2D canvas with no window or message loop required. Windows MSVC (mswin) Ruby only.

winhttp is a native extension that binds the asynchronous WinHTTP API into a thin, hard-to-misuse Ruby HTTP client: system TLS via Schannel with the OS certificate store and revocation policy, the user's proxy and PAC settings, HTTP/2 negotiation, transparent gzip/deflate, safe redirect defaults, and streaming downloads. Requests park the calling fiber under a Fiber scheduler (e.g. winloop) and block plainly without one — one code path. Windows MSVC (mswin) Ruby only.

winipc is a native extension that exposes Windows local inter-process communication through an ergonomic, safe-by-default Ruby API: duplex named pipes (byte and message mode, with a server and a connect-with-retry client), pagefile-backed shared memory via named file mappings, and named synchronization objects (mutex, event, semaphore). Pipe handles are opened for overlapped I/O so they cooperate with a fiber scheduler, and objects are created with a restrictive security descriptor by default. Windows MSVC (mswin) Ruby only.

winlog emits Windows ETW TraceLogging events from Ruby with no manifest, no message DLL, no registry writes, and no elevation: register a provider by name (standard ETW name-hashed GUID), then log runtime-dynamic events with typed fields (UTF-8 text, binary, int64, double, boolean) plus levels, keywords, opcodes, and explicit activity IDs for correlation. Events are self-describing and decode in WPA, PerfView, and the inbox logman/tracerpt with zero setup; when no session is listening, a log call is gated in native code before field processing and costs about one Ruby method call. Built on Microsoft's MIT-licensed TraceLoggingDynamic.h (vendored). Emit-only: events go to ETW sessions, not the Windows Event Log. Windows MSVC (mswin) Ruby only.

winproc is a native extension for controlling Windows processes the way the OS intends: argv-array spawning with exact quoting and per-handle inheritance (PROC_THREAD_ATTRIBUTE_HANDLE_LIST), job objects with kill-on-close so a spawned tree can never outlive you (even across a crash), atomic job placement at creation, ConPTY pseudoconsoles for real interactive terminal I/O, and elevation helpers (elevated?/admin?, ShellExecuteEx "runas", scoped token privileges). Blocking waits release the GVL and cooperate with a fiber scheduler. Windows MSVC (mswin) Ruby only.

winreg is a native extension exposing the Win32 registry through a typed, hard-to-misuse Ruby API: strict typed readers and writers for REG_SZ, REG_EXPAND_SZ (never auto-expanded), REG_MULTI_SZ (correct double-NUL wire format), REG_DWORD/REG_QWORD (range-checked), and REG_BINARY, with raw escape hatches for adversarial data; default-value access; 32/64-bit registry views as a first-class option applied consistently to child operations; least-privilege KEY_READ defaults; and RegNotifyChangeKeyValue change watching (thread-agnostic registrations, rearm-before-deliver) that blocks cooperatively under a Fiber scheduler and releases the GVL standalone. Windows MSVC (mswin) Ruby only.

winsvc runs a Ruby process as a Windows service (SERVICE_WIN32_OWN_PROCESS) with correct service-control-manager integration: the control handler is pure C (no Ruby ever runs on an SCM thread), controls arrive on a Thread::Queue (fiber-scheduler cooperative), SERVICE_STOPPED is reported exactly once, and checkpoints are only ever honest. The same block runs unchanged as a console program for development. Includes a minimal installer (CreateServiceW, delayed auto-start, restart-on-failure recovery) and a correctly quoted sc.exe command generator. Windows MSVC (mswin) Ruby only.

wintoast pops native Windows toast notifications from plain Ruby scripts using the WinRT notification API that ships with Windows — no Windows App SDK, no packaging, no COM activation server, no elevation — and drives progress on the taskbar button (ITaskbarList3) and the Windows Terminal tab (OSC 9;4) at the same time, so progress shows up under classic conhost AND modern terminals. API: Wintoast.toast (title/body/attribution, app logo + hero images, system sounds, duration, scenario, expiration, tag/group), Wintoast.register! / unregister! (opt-in, reversible, per-user HKCU AppUserModelId branding — no shortcut, no admin), Wintoast.progress / progress_clear, and Wintoast::Payload.build for inspecting the exact toast XML. Windows MSVC (mswin) Ruby only.

winwatch watches a directory (optionally a whole subtree) with a single overlapped ReadDirectoryChangesW operation and delivers :added/:modified/ :removed/:renamed events with absolute UTF-8 paths. Kernel buffer overflow is surfaced as an explicit :rescan event (never silently dropped) and a dying watch (root deleted, network loss) as a terminal :gone event. Blocking pulls release the GVL and are interrupt-safe; under the winloop fiber scheduler the watcher parks fibers on the loop's completion port with zero extra threads. Public API: Winwatch.watch(path, recursive:, filter:, buffer_size:, normalize_names:) with a block form, Watcher#take/#each/#close, and a frozen Winwatch::Event struct. Windows MSVC (mswin) Ruby only.