Jsonnet
Hacker ApprovedRanked 3 of 9 configuration languages by recommenders
People recommend Jsonnet for generating static configuration from dynamic input, with pure execution and no arbitrary I/O. Some find its developer experience poor.
People recommend Jsonnet for generating static configuration from dynamic input, with pure execution and no arbitrary I/O. Some find its developer experience poor.
15 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 12
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 80%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 12 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 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
Generates Kubernetes configuration
“They work well when did to generate static config from some dynamic input generated by regular program.”
Comment from 20 Jul 2026 in “Hyprland 0.55 announced the switch to Lua for its config files” “generating Kubernetes configurations using Jsonnet is quite pleasant”
Comment from 18 Oct 2026 in “A skeptic's first contact with Kubernetes (2024)” “I use exclusively jsonnet (through kubecfg) when I can”
Comment from 17 Oct 2026 in “A skeptic's first contact with Kubernetes (2024)” Beats Go templates and imperative code
“my personal preference Jsonnet instead of imperative languages for an interesting experience”
Comment from 10 Dec 2025 in “The future of Terraform CDK” “any of the ones you list are fine though and a vast improvement on using Go templates for it”
Comment from 18 Oct 2026 in “A skeptic's first contact with Kubernetes (2024)” Pleasant and safe to use
“generating Kubernetes configurations using Jsonnet is quite pleasant”
Comment from 18 Oct 2026 in “A skeptic's first contact with Kubernetes (2024)” “turned out to be a safe choice”
Comment from 16 Jan 2026 in “Cue Does It All, but Can It Literate?”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Poor developer experience
“it's not this unusable mess that ksonnet or jsonnet is”
Comment from 21 Jan 2026 in “Building Robust Helm Charts” “jsonnet is the main DX issue therein”
Comment from 12 Nov 2025 in “Helm 4.0”
Other configuration languages people recommend
The four most recommended other configuration languages, 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.
See all 9 configuration languages, rankedWhat people said
13 of the 15 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“generating Kubernetes configurations using Jsonnet is quite pleasant”
“any of the ones you list are fine though and a vast improvement on using Go templates for it”
“I use exclusively jsonnet (through kubecfg) when I can”
“They work well when did to generate static config from some dynamic input generated by regular program.”
“it's not this unusable mess that ksonnet or jsonnet is”
“turned out to be a safe choice”
“my personal preference Jsonnet instead of imperative languages for an interesting experience”
“The configuration languages that are truly worthwhile are the ones that the author deride”
“CUE, Dhall, and Jsonnet are doing more or less the right thing, but they are a tad large.”
“because it has nice guarantees, like lack of arbitrary I/O and pure execution”
“Stick with Kustomize or jsonnet.”
“I still have nightmare when I had to use jsonnet and kustomize just for istio, with upgrade hell.”
“jsonnet is the main DX issue therein”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.