just command runner
Hacker ApprovedThe most recommended of 4 task runners
Free command runner with make-like syntax, easier to read than Makefiles. Critics say it adds little over make.
Free command runner with make-like syntax, easier to read than Makefiles. Critics say it adds little over make.
36 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 32
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 89%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 32 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 10 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
Simpler, cleaner alternative to Makefiles
“is an uncursed make (for task running purposes - it's not a general build system)”
Comment from 6 Feb 2026 in “GitHub Actions Is Slowly Killing Your Engineering Team” “Justfiles,which are modernized Makefiles so you dont have 30 years of cruft”
Comment from 3 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Home Maker: Declare Your Dev Tools in a Makefile” “Just uses make-like syntax, not yaml, which I view as a huge advantage.”
Comment from 6 Feb 2026 in “GitHub Actions Is Slowly Killing Your Engineering Team” - Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Make.ts”
Keeps project commands in one place
“using justfiles instead of make. I have `just prerequisites`, `just lint`, `just build` in all of my projects.”
Comment from 28 May 2026 in “Local-First and Portable CI” “A command runner like just does everything you need, and makes the tools available to humans.”
Comment from 10 Dec 2025 in “Donating the Model Context Protocol and establishing the Agentic AI Foundation” “give me a justfile with three or four commands that I run to do the things that I need to do”
Comment from 16 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Claude Code skills that build complete Godot games” - Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “Evaluating AGENTS.md: are they helpful for coding agents?”
- Comment from 3 Feb 2026 in “Agent Skills”
Quick to learn
“It's really easy to learn - about an afternoon to peruse the docs.”
Comment from 3 Aug 2026 in “Use Task Runners for Common Coding Tasks” “can learn in an afternoon”
Comment from 4 Aug 2026 in “Use Task Runners for Common Coding Tasks” Self-documenting, greppable command list
“get a self-documenting list of all the tooling for the project”
Comment from 9 May 2026 in “Mythical Man Month” “Simple, greppable, self-documenting, works great”
Comment from 8 May 2026 in “Agents need control flow, not more prompts”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Adds little over make
“Why they needed yet another task runner, when I am pretty sure make would have been fine, is beyond me.”
Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “The Tor Project is switching to Rust” “the marginal improvement is not worth it for us”
Comment from 1 Nov 2026 in “The Case Against Makefiles”
Other task runners people recommend
The three most recommended other task runners, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| just command runnerThis page | 32 | 4 | 89% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Task | 7 | 1 | 88% | 4 | — | — |
| comma by nix-community | 7 | 4 | 64% | 4 | — | — |
| Make.ts | 5 | 3 | 63% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
38 of the 44 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“the marginal improvement is not worth it for us”
“Downloading the internet to build a smallish software is always bad in my opinion.”
“as often my python projects contain many other language commands (SQL, docker, pnpm, etc ...)”
“by default each line in a recipe is executed in a sub shell”
“can learn in an afternoon”
“It's really easy to learn - about an afternoon to peruse the docs.”
“I have been using just for some projects and really like it”
“optimized for developer ergonomics instead of feature completeness”
“just recipes, by definition, cannot be outdated because then we wouldn't be able to do our work.”
“I've got really comfy `just` scripts for generating Clang "intermediaries" in my CMake project.”
“All the Jenksfile shrunk to manageable complexity”
“using justfiles instead of make. I have `just prerequisites`, `just lint`, `just build` in all of my projects.”
“get a self-documenting list of all the tooling for the project”
“Simple, greppable, self-documenting, works great”
“As the author, I also love `just` and I have the CI steps as `just fmt`”
“Casey focused on solving his own problem and that authenticity is exactly what made it take off.”
“for more structured scripting”
“Justfiles,which are modernized Makefiles so you dont have 30 years of cruft”
“is now a very mature and well thought out alternative”
“give me a justfile with three or four commands that I run to do the things that I need to do”
“Even something like 'just' have tens of deps, including one to check that something is executable.”
“Allows to bind common commands simple smaller commands that can be easily referenced”
“Just uses make-like syntax, not yaml, which I view as a huge advantage.”
“is an uncursed make (for task running purposes - it's not a general build system)”
“a command runner like `just` works really well for making scripts easily available”
“You can reference other justfiles as modules too, so in a mono repo you can do just foo-app test.”
“I was a Just enjoyer for quite a while, until I tried mise.”
“somewhat similar to a makefile but without the painpoints”
“make/just seems easier for people to spot at a glance”
“this is what they were designed for”
“Shell scripting isn't easily sandboxed like that, just by checking a string to see if it beings with "just"”
“you want some sort of simple tool to orchestrate the builds”
“My go-to now is to use mise + just to glue together build artifacts”
“having to deal with a ton of issues on the way”
“Why they needed yet another task runner, when I am pretty sure make would have been fine, is beyond me.”
“I am better with Just and Cargo.”
“A command runner like just does everything you need, and makes the tools available to humans.”
“I had similar with just (a make replacement) and debian 12.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.