Oak
Dev tools
version control
SHOW HN2026
How HN took it
8 positive, 28 neutral or asking, 2 mixed, 32 critical, out of 70 comments about the project. Thread score -0.35.
Idea: 3 for, 19 againstPerformance: 2 for, 6 againstDocs: 0 for, 4 againstDesign: 1 for, 1 againstExecution: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Lazy mount idea is interesting and similar to google3 approach
From 1 comment
The lazy mount is very interesting. This is similar to how google3 works at Google that I have not seen any similar implementation in open source so far. Git sparse checkout is…
mohsen1 on HN
Monorepo and private/public file ideas are appealing
From 1 comment
Looks very interesting, but it's difficult to see the benefit from git right now apart from performance? Don't get me wrong, that's good, but I don't think it's a big enough…
forty_one on HN
Objections
Git performance is not a bottleneck for agents
From 2 comments
I cannot imagine git being a performance bottleneck in agentic workflow. > You can work on many tasks in parallel without needing to download everything or fight worktrees. What…
vova_hn2 on HNThe focus on speed is interesting here, it's something I think less and less about with agents. I'm not waiting for git operations, and at the rate agents run it's just not a…
danpalmer on HN
Agents already know git from training data
From 1 comment
Anything "for agents" needs to provide some kind of evidence it's better than what the agents already have baked into the model training data. It can't just be "easier" on some…
SwellJoe on HN
Marketing and README are unclear
From 3 comments
I have absolutely no idea what this offers that makes it better than git (or any over VCS for that matter) for agents. There’s some mention about performance, which is great, but…
hnlmorg on HNLots of self-promotion, but no concrete comparisons where this tool does a better job than git. The only thing to go on is this single sentence: "With virtual mounts, agents…
sublinear on HNA few comments: * The core idea sounds interesting. Make it the first paragraph, not paragraph seven. * Spend more words describing what makes Oak different. * "I built a version…
noelwelsh on HN
Requests
Offline or self-hosted install without creating an account
From 1 comment
I would have loved to try locally, but the installer asks me to create an account and I don't want to do that yet.
desmondl on HN
Explain the data model and how it differs from git
From 1 comment
I would recommend just linking to a few sentences that say how Oak is different than Git, rather than a personal backstory. (https://oak.space/docs) My initial reaction is if…
ks2048 on HN
Questions
How latency is handled for on-demand access over WAN
From 1 comment
I am curious, how do you handle latency issues for on demand access? I saw you use FUSE (and FSKit), and from my experience it is pain to make filesystems in userspace work…
coldstartops on HN
How it handles submodules and LFS
From 1 comment
Does this try to solve the biggest problems with Git: submodules and LFS?
IshKebab on HN
Alternatives named
git
From 1 comment
I have absolutely no idea what this offers that makes it better than git (or any over VCS for that matter) for agents. There’s some mention about performance, which is great, but…
hnlmorg on HN
jj
From 1 comment
Yeah, I'll just wait for jj to get more virtualized FS features, and be very, very happy with that.
nixosbestos on HN
Fossil SCM
From 1 comment
I'm also secretly a massive fan of Dr. Hipp and his work on FossilSCM [1]. I love a bunch of his design decisions there and wanted to apply them to a new system. [1]…
zdgeier on HN
Perforce
From 1 comment
Yes Lore looks awesome! I was previously working on a VCS for gamedevs -- that space definitely needs something better than Perforce haha. My comment would be that I think you…
zdgeier on HN