git-annex
Hacker ApprovedRanked 2 of 3 version control extensions by recommenders
Recommended for managing large files in git repositories, with client-side encryption, deduplicated backups and tracking of file locations across drives.
Recommended for managing large files in git repositories, with client-side encryption, deduplicated backups and tracking of file locations across drives.
21 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 15
- criticize it
- 6
- approval share
- 71%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: 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
- 15 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 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
Mature, well-built software
“git-annex has been around for decades written by one of the best Haskellers”
Comment from 2 Jul 2026 in “No LLM Code in Dependencies” “Git annex is a remarkable piece of software”
Comment from 2 Jul 2026 in “No LLM Code in Dependencies” Handles large file collections
“Scaling to hundreds of thousands of files is not a problem, scaling beyond that and git will start to get slow.”
Comment from 3 Sep 2026 in “Creating backup storage sucks” “git lfs/annex and git sparse "cone" checkouts can get pretty close to hitting the 90 or 95% case”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Epic Games announces Lore version control system” Encrypted, deduplicated backups
“It can do client side encryption and large files as well.”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “I taught a bucket to speak Git” “use borg, restic or git-annex for deduplicating backups”
Comment from 8 Mar 2026 in “Filesystems Are Having a Moment” Tracks file locations across drives
“that will just keep the hash link in a repo but have the file in a offline drive”
Comment from 3 Sep 2026 in “Creating backup storage sucks” “the location tracking stuff in git-annex is the only success story I am aware of”
Comment from 1 May 2026 in “If I Could Make My Own GitHub”
Other version control extensions people recommend
The two most recommended other version control extensions, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 3 version control extensions, rankedWhat people said
21 of the 22 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Sounds like git annex assistant”
“that will just keep the hash link in a repo but have the file in a offline drive”
“Scaling to hundreds of thousands of files is not a problem, scaling beyond that and git will start to get slow.”
“Not if you use git-annex.”
“That's exactly what git-annex does”
“Git annex is a remarkable piece of software”
“git-annex has been around for decades written by one of the best Haskellers”
“just for some guy's (forkable, AGPL licensed) hobby project”
“It looks like git after 2.22 was dropped because it took an LLM commit.”
“It can do client side encryption and large files as well.”
“it resulted in a sysadmin at rsync.net personally contacting me to see if I needed help”
“git lfs/annex and git sparse "cone" checkouts can get pretty close to hitting the 90 or 95% case”
“the location tracking stuff in git-annex is the only success story I am aware of”
“Both have their advantages and disadvantages.”
“That they didn't go with git annex was such a fit of NIH of a mistake.”
“use borg, restic or git-annex for deduplicating backups”
“Git-annex, Unison, and Syncthing are much better at keeping files synchronized across devices.”
“I've used git-annex and I'll tell you, it's overcomplicated.”
“I know git-annex is supposed to be good, but I haven't used it much.”
“Git-Annex is just too slow (it takes minutes up to even hours for some Git operation”
“Does everything I want, and is pretty simple for what it gives me.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.