# Jsonnet 12 Hacker News commenters recommended Jsonnet and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** People recommend Jsonnet for generating static configuration from dynamic input, with pure execution and no arbitrary I/O. Some find its developer experience poor. ## Why people recommend it - Generates Kubernetes configuration (3 comments): "They work well when did to generate static config from some dynamic input generated by regular program." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48985739)) "generating Kubernetes configurations using Jsonnet is quite pleasant" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50143230)) "I use exclusively jsonnet (through kubecfg) when I can" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50135783)) - Beats Go templates and imperative code (2 comments): "my personal preference Jsonnet instead of imperative languages for an interesting experience" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46222692)) "any of the ones you list are fine though and a vast improvement on using Go templates for it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50137457)) - Pleasant and safe to use (2 comments): "generating Kubernetes configurations using Jsonnet is quite pleasant" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50143230)) "turned out to be a safe choice" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46646487)) ## What people warn about - Poor developer experience (2 comments): "it's not this unusable mess that ksonnet or jsonnet is" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46704493)) "jsonnet is the main DX issue therein" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45903553)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [CUE](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cue.md): 29 recommend - [TOML](https://hackerapproved.com/p/toml.md): 19 recommend - [HCL](https://hackerapproved.com/p/hcl.md): 10 recommend - [Dhall](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dhall.md): 9 recommend - [Nickel configuration language](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nickel.md): 8 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Jsonnet", https://hackerapproved.com/p/jsonnet/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).