Git 是永恒的。但我还是要构建 Oak。

Git 是永恒的。但我还是要构建 Oak。
Show HN: Oak – Git replacement designed for agents

尽管 Git 仍然是人类驱动、长期代码保存的金标准，但其创建者 Zach Geier 认为，版本控制系统需要进行现代化改造，以适应人工智能时代的需求。经过多年的开发，Geier 推出了 **Oak**，这是一个专门为 AI 智能体（AI agents）设计的新型版本控制系统。与需要下载整个存储库的 Git 不同，Oak 利用“虚拟挂载”（virtual mounts）技术，使智能体和开发人员能够快速处理大型项目，而无需承担完整副本带来的开销。这不仅支持并行任务执行，还显著改善了 AI 的上下文管理能力。尽管目前尚处于早期开发阶段，但 Oak 已经实现了自身代码库的托管。它基于开源核心构建并配有命令行界面（CLI），其中 `oak export` 功能确保了与 Git 的兼容性。虽然对 Windows 的支持和 CI 集成等功能仍在完善中，但 Geier 正在积极开发该平台，并邀请早期用户通过 Discord 加入社区。Oak 旨在将版本控制转化为一种更快捷、更高效的体验，突破传统工具的局限，以更好地适应现代自动化工作流的需求。

这场 Hacker News 讨论聚焦于 **Oak** 的发布，这是一个旨在替代 Git 的新型版本控制系统（VCS）。项目开发者认为，虽然 Git 功能强大，但不适用于许多现代软件工作流，并列举了它在大文件处理、子模块管理以及复杂的权限控制方面存在的问题。评论区的反应褒贬不一。一些用户对其他 VCS 工具（如 **Jujutsu** 和 **Fossil**）表示了兴趣，因为这些工具解决了 Git 常见的一些痛点，例如分支操作困难、历史记录管理繁琐，以及对“以人为本”的变更追踪的需求。然而，许多用户批评该项目的发布过于推销且缺乏技术深度。怀疑者指出，作者未能清楚地阐明 Oak 在数据模型层面与 Git 有何不同，这引发了人们对其为何不作为 Git 扩展构建的质疑。尽管作者澄清 Oak 的文件存储方式有所不同——通过对所有数据进行分块处理，从而消除了对 Git LFS 等系统的需求——但其他人仍不买账，认为其“代理优先”（agent-first）的设计和营销动机与大多数开发者的实际工作流程脱节。

Git is extremely good at what it was built for: humans making deliberate changes, reviewing patches, and preserving a distributed history that can survive decades. It was purpose-built for Linux kernel development and I don’t believe anyone can make a better tool for that. Git is forever.

But even though git is wonderful at many things, I started to wonder years ago if there could be something better. Almost everyone has their own problems with version control. What would a version control system look like if we created it from scratch today?

This started a four year long adventure where I built a version control system in my free-time called Jam, quit my job, and ended up selling it to another company very early on so I could continue working on it full-time.

That company unfortunately ended up shutting down in a little over a year.

However, I did get to see how good version control could feel if we just started over. There’s so much freedom in building on a new foundation. I’ve been thinking about version control systems every day since then.

With AI, I can finally build what I've been dreaming about. Version control systems are really hard to make, and even harder to make well. I’ve done way more in the previous four months than I did in the past four years.

Oak is the version control system I've been working on designed for your agents. It dramatically improves the speed and context your agents need when working on serious projects. With virtual mounts, agents locally and in the cloud no longer need a full copy of a repo to get working. You can work on many tasks in parallel without needing to download everything or fight worktrees. Version control shouldn't waste you or your agents time.

It should be fast, creative and fun to make things with your agents.

Oak is still early in development. There's no Windows build and missing plenty of features. No CI, no issues, no comments. We still use GitHub Actions for building Oak now, but we've been fully bootstrapped on Oak with no Git backup for several months.

It's currently made by Zach Geier (me), with Adam Morse shaping the product and visual system. It’s built on an open-source core and CLI. You can self host with `oak serve` and export your repo to a git repo with `oak export` at any time.

And you can try it out now! For the first 100 users that subscribe to a paid plan I will send you a personalized e-ink display with a unique Oak species (I don’t know how this will look yet).

An early prototype e-ink display showing a dithered oak tree and the word “oak” — Prototype of the e-ink display.

I would love to hear your ideas and thoughts. Please, join the Discord if you're interested in following along or want to reach out.

— Zach

Git 是永恒的。但我还是要构建 Oak。 Show HN: Oak – Git replacement designed for agents

Git 是永恒的。但我还是要构建 Oak。
Show HN: Oak – Git replacement designed for agents