Graphite code review
Hacker ApprovedRanked 3 of 17 code review tools by recommenders
People recommend it for stacking dependent pull requests and speeding up PR review on GitHub, which eases rebasing pain. Critics say it is complex, the AI review is weak and paid, and it is worth less than GitHub alone.
People recommend it for stacking dependent pull requests and speeding up PR review on GitHub, which eases rebasing pain. Critics say it is complex, the AI review is weak and paid, and it is worth less than GitHub alone.
68 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 52
- criticize it
- 16
- approval share
- 76%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 52 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.3 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
Stacked pull requests ease rebasing
“More sophisticated processes like Graphite's stacking of PRs are genuinely helpful in breaking down massive PRs into smaller chunks”
Comment from 17 May 2026 in “I don't think AI will make your processes go faster” “I've mostly been a happy user, they simplify a lot of the git pain of continually rebasing”
Comment from 19 Dec 2025 in “Graphite is joining Cursor” “Graphite solves the problem of how to keep your stack of GitHub pull requests in sync”
Comment from 19 Dec 2025 in “Graphite is joining Cursor” - Comment from 30 Jul 2026 in “Stacked PRs are now live on GitHub”
- Comment from 19 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: How are you LLM-coding in an established code base?”
- Comment from 20 Dec 2025 in “Graphite is joining Cursor”
- Comment from 31 Jul 2026 in “Stacked PRs are now live on GitHub”
- Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “The Git Commands I Run Before Reading Any Code”
- Comment from 19 Dec 2025 in “Graphite is joining Cursor”
Faster, cleaner PR review interface
“The Graphite review UI/UX is at least 3x better than GitHub, and also somehow loads faster.”
Comment from 20 Dec 2025 in “Graphite is joining Cursor” “I can get a PR to load at least 2-3x faster in Graphite than GitHub.”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Zig quits GitHub, says Microsoft's AI obsession has ruined the service” “Graphite was basically what GitHub should have been but never was”
Comment from 19 Dec 2025 in “Graphite is joining Cursor” Stack-aware merge queue and dashboard
“This is a tool I hadn't heard of before and the merge queue seems like a very useful concept.”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “Why Your "AI-First" Strategy Is Probably Wrong” “With Graphite, I also get a stack-aware merge queue and review dashboard.”
Comment from 8 Dec 2025 in “Stacked Diffs with git rebase —onto”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Complex and cluttered for simple needs
“Graphite is a really complicated suite of software with many moving pieces and a couple more levels of abstraction than your typical B2B SaaS.”
Comment from 19 Dec 2025 in “Graphite is joining Cursor” “Graphite is an incredible amount of "extra" for a team that just communicates and knows how to use git”
Comment from 16 Jun 2026 in “SpaceX to buy Cursor AI coding agent operator Anysphere for $60B” “I've tried graphite but found that they made it too convoluted for what it is.”
Comment from 30 Jul 2026 in “Stacked PRs are now live on GitHub” - Comment from 2 Jul 2026 in “Google copybara: moving code between repositories”
AI review weak and paywalled
“Their AI review is sub par, but everything else is really good.”
Comment from 20 Dec 2025 in “Graphite is joining Cursor” “undismissable "Pay use more to enable AI reviews" nag that Graphite places above your CI checks and assigned reviewers”
Comment from 19 Dec 2025 in “Graphite is joining Cursor” “instead of trying to charge me $40 a month for an AI reviewer”
Comment from 3 Mar 2026 in “GitHub Is Having Issues” Little gain over plain GitHub
“I haven't really been able to see its appeal over just doing a PR within Github”
Comment from 20 Dec 2025 in “Graphite is joining Cursor” “I didn't see the appeal of bespoke PR stacking tools when it was the headline feature of Graphite”
Comment from 31 Jul 2026 in “Stacked PRs are now live on GitHub” “We had previously tried out Graphite but it didn't really stick”
Comment from 5 Dec 2025 in “Stacked Diffs with git rebase —onto” Worries about Cursor acquisition direction
“paid software with a strong VC based motivation to become everyone's everything”
Comment from 2 Feb 2026 in “VisualJJ – Jujutsu in Visual Studio Code” “this appears to be the final nail in the original products coffin”
Comment from 19 Dec 2025 in “Graphite is joining Cursor” “this statement makes it more likely that it will go to trash”
Comment from 19 Dec 2025 in “Graphite is joining Cursor”
Other code review tools people recommend
The four most recommended other code review tools, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub Stacked PRs | 64 | 63 | 50% | 3 | — | — |
| Gerrit | 60 | 12 | 83% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Graphite code reviewThis page | 52 | 16 | 76% | 9 | — | Approved |
| CodeRabbit | 34 | 32 | 52% | 11 | — | — |
| Stage | 32 | 11 | 74% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 84 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I didn't see the appeal of bespoke PR stacking tools when it was the headline feature of Graphite”
“The tooling managing all the rebasing and PR bases is great.”
“I've tried graphite but found that they made it too convoluted for what it is.”
“After using Graphite it's been very hard going back to stack-less GitHub.”
“it feels just as cluttered and slow as anything else”
“Graphite is an incredible amount of "extra" for a team that just communicates and knows how to use git”
“More sophisticated processes like Graphite's stacking of PRs are genuinely helpful in breaking down massive PRs into smaller chunks”
“Graphite lets you split a large set of changes by commit or by hunk which is very handy.”
“This is a tool I hadn't heard of before and the merge queue seems like a very useful concept.”
“I didn't love needing to bring in another tool/service/account when I only care about the stacking behaviour”
“Use graphite or something else that allows you to stack PRs.”
“rrdtool conbined with graphite was powerful back then when metrics and logging was selfhosted”
“instead of trying to charge me $40 a month for an AI reviewer”
“paid software with a strong VC based motivation to become everyone's everything”
“My "first pass" of review is usually me reading the PR stack in graphite”
“A lot of the features seem inspired by Graphite, which is also really enjoyable.”
“Their AI review is sub par, but everything else is really good.”
“The Graphite review UI/UX is at least 3x better than GitHub, and also somehow loads faster.”
“So they're investing in another company that actually has a good, meaningful product.”
“the stacked changes support, for me, was an absolute game changer”
“I haven't really been able to see its appeal over just doing a PR within Github”
“two great companies joining forces in a crowded space where it is clear the whole is worth more than the sum of their parts”
“this appears to be the final nail in the original products coffin”
“undismissable "Pay use more to enable AI reviews" nag that Graphite places above your CI checks and assigned reviewers”
“Graphite stacks are amazing for unblocking the biggest bottleneck”
“more likely to come from a new player like Cursor/Graphite than one of the giants”
“Graphite is a really complicated suite of software with many moving pieces and a couple more levels of abstraction than your typical B2B SaaS.”
“Have admired what you're building at Graphite and look forward to seeing what you build as part of the Cursor team.”
“Simply hit the server with a metric and value and BOOM it's on the chart, no dependencies, no fuss.”
“Graphite solves the problem of how to keep your stack of GitHub pull requests in sync”
“this statement makes it more likely that it will go to trash”
“stacked prs will only get better from here :) we have an incredible amount of resources to keep improving that part of our product.”
“I've mostly been a happy user, they simplify a lot of the git pain of continually rebasing”
“Graphite was basically what GitHub should have been but never was”
“We're doubling down on building the best workflow, now with more resourcing than ever before!”
“Graphite's core feature of stacked PRs is really good”
“I'm really used to my Graphite workflow and I can't imagine going without it anymore”
“With Graphite, I also get a stack-aware merge queue and review dashboard.”
“We had previously tried out Graphite but it didn't really stick”
“I can get a PR to load at least 2-3x faster in Graphite than GitHub.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.