OpenRewrite
Tied for most recommended of 3 code transformation tools
Free tool that rewrites source code to modernize it while staying close to the surrounding code. Common caveat: build plugins keep everything in memory and reparse on each change.
Free tool that rewrites source code to modernize it while staying close to the surrounding code. Common caveat: build plugins keep everything in memory and reparse on each change.
8 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 88%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not 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
Modernizes code, keeps surrounding code intact
“it produced the best results for code transformations with the highest fidelity to the surrounding code”
Comment from 12 Feb 2026 in “Improving 15 LLMs at Coding in One Afternoon. Only the Harness Changed” “tooling that can modify your source code to make it more modern is really cool stuff”
Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “Using go fix to modernize Go code”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Build plugins reparse everything on change
“OpenRewrite's build plugins, on the other hand, store everything in memory and need to be reparsed every time there is a change.”
Comment from 21 Feb 2026 in “Coccinelle: The Linux kernel's source-to-source transformation tool”
Other code transformation tools people recommend
The two most recommended other code transformation 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenRewriteThis page | 7 | 1 | 88% | 3 | — | — |
| Coccinelle | 7 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
| go fix | 7 | 2 | 78% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
All 8 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Trying to get something running with openRewrite at work.”
“Had the same experience with the OpenRewrite lately.”
“for polyrepo setups, openrewrite is great.”
“OpenRewrite's build plugins, on the other hand, store everything in memory and need to be reparsed every time there is a change.”
“tooling that can modify your source code to make it more modern is really cool stuff”
“it produced the best results for code transformations with the highest fidelity to the surrounding code”
“It should be a great tool for agents.”
“I think this could be handled by an open rewrite rule”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.