It is a fork of the same-named JScript engine used in Internet Explorer.

Like the EdgeHTML browser engine, the declared intention was that it would reflect the "Living Web".

[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.