Buf CLI
Hacker ApprovedProtobuf toolchain in Developer tools
Developers recommend it for making Protobuf workflows usable, with generate-from-repo consistency and breaking-change checks. Critics note rate limits and paid tiers for some features.
Developers recommend it for making Protobuf workflows usable, with generate-from-repo consistency and breaking-change checks. Critics note rate limits and paid tiers for some features.
19 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 14
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 74%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 14 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Makes Protobuf far more usable
“Buf does great work at fixing Protobuf to the point of being just barely usable”
Comment from 16 Aug 2026 in “Protobuf has LSP support. You're welcome” “It has solved many frustrations I've had with The Way it was previously done”
Comment from 17 Aug 2026 in “Protobuf has LSP support. You're welcome” “It's been a massive improvement in usability since they came along.”
Comment from 12 Jul 2026 in “Protobuf-py: Protobuf for Python, without compromises” - Comment from 12 Jul 2026 in “Protobuf-py: Protobuf for Python, without compromises”
Breaking-change checks
“Buf.build also has a lot of helpful tools, like backwards compatibility checking.”
Comment from 14 Feb 2026 in “gRPC: From service definition to wire format” “buf's breaking-change checks”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Skir – A schema language I built after 15 years of Protobuf friction” Established vendor with good docs
“It's great to just point frontend developers to the Buf documentation for new features”
Comment from 17 Aug 2026 in “Protobuf has LSP support. You're welcome” “Buf is well established and maintains a lot of protobuf packages for many languages”
Comment from 12 Jul 2026 in “Protobuf-py: Protobuf for Python, without compromises”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Paid tiers and rent-seeking
“they introduced a bunch of rent seeking behavior”
Comment from 12 Jul 2026 in “Protobuf-py: Protobuf for Python, without compromises” “buf.build offers this, but makes you pay for it”
Comment from 8 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Skir – A schema language I built after 15 years of Protobuf friction”
What people said
21 of the 23 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“a useful tool worth checking out for teams working with Protobuf”
“It has solved many frustrations I've had with The Way it was previously done”
“Third party projects like Buf or BetterProto for Python try their best”
“It's great to just point frontend developers to the Buf documentation for new features”
“There is no better stack, I'll die on this hill.”
“it's doing a decent job from what I can see”
“Buf does great work at fixing Protobuf to the point of being just barely usable”
“seems less necessary in the LLM era”
“if you happen to regenerate your protos 5 times in an hour you'll get ratelimited”
“It's been a massive improvement in usability since they came along.”
“they introduced a bunch of rent seeking behavior”
“a wonderful company entirely dedicated to making google's miserable protobuf”
“Buf is well established and maintains a lot of protobuf packages for many languages”
“I think it's a great system overall but has many limitations”
“buf's breaking-change checks”
“buf.build offers this, but makes you pay for it”
“that's exactly what buf does for Protobuf already”
“Buf.build also has a lot of helpful tools, like backwards compatibility checking.”
“Now it's just "buf generate", every developer has the exact same settings defined in the repo”
“Build.io website doesn't have it on mobile site at all.”
“Plus a pricing model that stays understandable and improves as teams scale rather than punishing them for it.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.