# jj (Jujutsu) 115 Hacker News commenters recommended jj (Jujutsu) and 37 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 1 years (7 owners). It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** A Git-compatible version control tool that people find simpler than Git, with painless undo, easy history editing and light branching; skeptics say it isn't different enough to justify relearning. ## Why people recommend it - Simpler, more intuitive than Git (8 comments): "those same people that struggled for years with git are able to pick up jj and be very productive with no issue whatsoever, in a matter of days" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47881241)) "jj has far fewer warts than git. You don’t have to learn every jj idiom, you just have to find a workflow you like" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47772984)) "I found that jj is just so much nicer to use, for me, that I haven't used git itself in years at this point." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47769294)) - Fearless rebases with reliable undo (5 comments): "This is such a killer feature to me. I'm not scared to start potentially gnarly rebases anymore because I can painlessly undo." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47771705)) "once you start doing the really fancy stuff, one of the two will get you a lot fewer messy explosions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47772687)) "The mental model is so much cleaner than git, undo actually works the way you'd expect it to" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47766496)) - Easy squashing and history editing (4 comments): "Just being able to squash changes to earlier commits without having to fiddle with fixups and interactive rebases is worth it for me." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47765543)) "I'd argue that this is one of the killer features of `jj`, since by comparison `git rebase` treats everything the same" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47765894)) "because children are also rebased, you can see immediately how much work, if any, you have to do" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46193025)) - Lightweight branching and parallel work (4 comments): "With branches, jj is to git what git was to SVN. It's an order of magnitude less friction to do branching in jj than git." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47770864)) "Anonymous branches are amazing for when you are trying out a bunch of different approaches to a problem." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47768071)) "I'm having a much better time with jj and a workspace per subagent than I was with git and worktrees." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49105254)) ## What people warn about - Not different enough from Git (5 comments): "doesn't really differentiate itself enough for people who've been using git for a long time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47773613)) "There is nothing in jj, pijul, or Bram Cohen's thing that is anywhere near as dramatic a quality of life improvement" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47767912)) "brings nothing new to the table while desperately trying to replace a well-established industry standard" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47773703)) - Relearning unfamiliar commands and idioms (2 comments): "seems a lot easier to learn, but really don't have the interest to re-learn a bunch of ever-changing idioms" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47766087)) "These obscure nonsense commands only makes sense when you are accustomed to them." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47766902)) - Installing via Rust/Cargo is a hassle (2 comments): "as far as I can tell you still need to run Cargo which I don't want to do because I don't care about Rust" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47768360)) "I won't install Rust just to test your software. Make a debian package like everyone else." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47765983)) - Rough edges and missing features (3 comments): "when I use filesystem paths as remotes they need to be colocated or else it doesn't work, which is a little annoying" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48638727)) "I'm advocating for JJ to build a proper daemon that runs "checks" per change in the background." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46875578)) "it's frustrating that lfs is taking so long. But there seems to be some momentum recently" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47768035)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Git](https://hackerapproved.com/p/git.md): 814 recommend - [Jujutsu (jj)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/jujutsu.md): 335 recommend - [Mercurial](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mercurial.md): 121 recommend - [Fossil](https://hackerapproved.com/p/fossil.md): 106 recommend - [Subversion](https://hackerapproved.com/p/subversion.md): 54 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "jj (Jujutsu)", https://hackerapproved.com/p/jj/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).