# git-bug

36 Hacker News commenters recommended git-bug and 9 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Stores issues inside Git so tracking stays with the code and no hosted service is needed. Most common caveat: no pull request support.

## Why people recommend it

- Stores issues in Git refs (4 comments): "It saves issues, PRs etc in git itself (not on a branch - on a specially crafted ref)." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47939920)) "I wish more people used git-bug. It stores issues and PRs in git" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46954707)) "git-bug validated that storing issues in Git refs works." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47136033))
- No hosted service lock-in (3 comments): "The point of using git is to have a full software project (code, issues, ...) self-contained, without being trapped in or dependent on a SaaS" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49847714)) "Having that metadata directly in a repo, not tied to any specific platform, always in sync, is nice." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49851814)) "Bonus that now the issues aren't vendor locked either" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47488135))
- Less context switching on small projects (2 comments): "Less context switching than opening a separate tracker when you are just shipping a small project." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49847656)) "there are advantages of your defect list riding right along with the code repository itself" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49848233))
- Works offline and across forges (2 comments): "git-bug has been really great for my projects that exist across forges" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47951312)) "works very well for offline collaboration" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46097522))

## What people warn about

- Lacks pull request support (2 comments): "I've used git-bug for issues and it works pretty well. The web-ui is lagging behind and PR support would be everything you'd need to ditch a central-hosted web instance." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49333003)) "git-bug is great but it doesn't handle PRs nor does it have a method for users without commit rights to submit bugs to the project" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47940245))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Linear](https://hackerapproved.com/p/linear.md): 148 recommend
- [Jira](https://hackerapproved.com/p/jira.md): 128 recommend
- [GitHub Issues](https://hackerapproved.com/p/github-issues.md): 29 recommend
- [Epiq](https://hackerapproved.com/p/epiq.md): 19 recommend
- [JetBrains YouTrack](https://hackerapproved.com/p/youtrack.md): 14 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "git-bug", https://hackerapproved.com/p/git-bug/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).