git-bug
Hacker ApprovedRanked 3 of 9 issue trackers by recommenders
Stores issues inside Git so tracking stays with the code and no hosted service is needed. Most common caveat: no pull request support.
Stores issues inside Git so tracking stays with the code and no hosted service is needed. Most common caveat: no pull request support.
45 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 36
- criticize it
- 9
- approval share
- 80%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 36 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 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
Stores issues in Git refs
“It saves issues, PRs etc in git itself (not on a branch - on a specially crafted ref).”
Comment from 28 Apr 2026 in “Ghostty is leaving GitHub” “I wish more people used git-bug. It stores issues and PRs in git”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “GitHub Is Down” “git-bug validated that storing issues in Git refs works.”
Comment from 24 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Git-native-issue – issues stored as commits in refs/issues/” - Comment from 28 Apr 2026 in “Ghostty is leaving GitHub”
No hosted service lock-in
“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”
Comment from 25 Sep 2026 in “Git-bug: Distributed, offline-first bug tracker embedded in Git” “Having that metadata directly in a repo, not tied to any specific platform, always in sync, is nice.”
Comment from 26 Sep 2026 in “Git-bug: Distributed, offline-first bug tracker embedded in Git” “Bonus that now the issues aren't vendor locked either”
Comment from 23 Mar 2026 in “Migrating to the EU” Less context switching on small projects
“Less context switching than opening a separate tracker when you are just shipping a small project.”
Comment from 25 Sep 2026 in “Git-bug: Distributed, offline-first bug tracker embedded in Git” “there are advantages of your defect list riding right along with the code repository itself”
Comment from 25 Sep 2026 in “Git-bug: Distributed, offline-first bug tracker embedded in Git” Works offline and across forges
“git-bug has been really great for my projects that exist across forges”
Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “Ghostty is leaving GitHub” “works very well for offline collaboration”
Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “Migrating Dillo from GitHub”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Lacks pull request support
“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.”
Comment from 17 Aug 2026 in “Ask HN: Alternatives to GitHub” “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”
Comment from 28 Apr 2026 in “Ghostty is leaving GitHub”
Other issue trackers people recommend
The four most recommended other issue trackers, 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.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linear | 148 | 66 | 69% | 12 | 4 yrs6 owners | Approved |
| Jira | 128 | 399 | 24% | 12 | 10 yrs7 owners | — |
| git-bugThis page | 36 | 9 | 80% | 8 | — | Approved |
| GitHub Issues | 29 | 28 | 51% | 11 | — | — |
| Epiq | 19 | 2 | 90% | 5 | 1.5 yrs4 owners | Approved |
What people said
40 of the 50 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Think this is a good extension to git.”
“Having that metadata directly in a repo, not tied to any specific platform, always in sync, is nice.”
“Git bug looks like it might at least handle getting tickets out of the way”
“Awesome project. When I was using sourcehut, I have written a primitive script that lets you import issues into git-bug.”
“I've long felt that something like this was the way”
“there are advantages of your defect list riding right along with the code repository itself”
“git-bug's data model is designed in a way that you can add more "operations" on an entity”
“Thank you for working on this, I love the idea.”
“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”
“Less context switching than opening a separate tracker when you are just shipping a small project.”
“why git? What's the motivation behind using git to do all this if the repository and the tickets are naturally out of sync?”
“Configurations like that break when software makes too many assumptions about how ssh is configured.”
“Seems more ergonomic than the offerings from multi billion dollar corporations.”
“keeping tickets in the same repo as the project could be really frictionless for LLMs to reach for without an MCP server”
“I tried git-bug a few months ago, and https://github.com/git-bug/git-bug/issues/1023 is a showstopper.”
“This is a really cool project, and I would love to see Magit add support for this.”
“my first impression is "why hasn't this existed the entire time?" which usually means you're on to something.”
“I used git bug before but found I missed being able to edit tickets with a Markdown editor”
“excellent! will definitely give this a try”
“Looks really nice, I wonder why there hasn't been a project with this exact name and functionality before.”
“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.”
“I'd encourage you to look at git-bug if you haven't already done so for some prior art / inspiration / hard learned lessons”
“git-bug has been really great for my projects that exist across forges”
“GitHub is still our source of truth, as our web application does not currently support”
“they are not dogfooding it”
“Even though I don't use git-bug anymore, I'm still a sponsor.”
“Every day these make more and more sense.”
“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”
“that special ref mechanism sounds really cool”
“It saves issues, PRs etc in git itself (not on a branch - on a specially crafted ref).”
“looks promising, but I haven't tried it”
“Bonus that now the issues aren't vendor locked either”
“The DAG topology → Lamport clocks → hash ordering hierarchy is cleaner than LWW.”
“git-bug validated that storing issues in Git refs works.”
“I would love git-bug project to be successful in achieving that.”
“I wish more people used git-bug. It stores issues and PRs in git”
“a 3rd party addition doesn't make Git as local-first as Fossil”
“git-bug is still being developed, awesome!”
“Stuff like git-bug exists, but then you still need participation from other people.”
“works very well for offline collaboration”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.