# GNU recutils

14 Hacker News commenters recommended GNU recutils and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free GNU tools that store records in readable plain-text files, with simple queries and diff-friendly data. Critics say editor support is weak and adoption is limited.

## Why people recommend it

- Simple, readable plain-text database format (3 comments): "I love recutils. The database format is simple enough, it has a bunch of options for constraints" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46267876)) "at least does basic relational database operations on plain text files" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49584740)) "this looks way more readable than csv" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46270594))
- Better than inventing new formats (2 comments): "I wish more people knew about GNU recutils instead of inventing new formats" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46265100)) "You should've used recutils probably" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49491506))
- Handy tools for querying logs and data (2 comments): "I really enjoying the toolset to query logs etc..." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46267535)) "With recutils csv2rec I have my invoices list." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46269686))
- Good for LLM input and memory (2 comments): "the rec file seems to be a great choice for formatting text that will be feed into LLMs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46270135)) "how they make an awesome LLM memory layer" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46265364))

## What people warn about

- Limited editor and product support (2 comments): "really limits adoption, because it means that product developers can't build it into" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46270661)) "editor support to make working with that easier was basically non-existent" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46266135))

## Cite as

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