just
Command runner for saving and running project-specific commands, similar to Make.
Liked as a simpler, more ergonomic alternative to Make123 for running project tasks, CI steps and team onboarding recipes.4567 Complaints are rare; one former fan later switched to mise8 because it also manages tools and environment variables.9
Why people recommend it
Task running · 3
Used for structured scripting, CI steps and commands in multilingual monorepos.
“As the author, I also love `just` and I have the CI steps as `just fmt`, etc.”
“I've started to embrace Just (https://github.com/casey/just) which is basically just a simpler Make.”
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“for more structured scripting.”
Simpler than Make · 3
Described as a simpler Make built for developer ergonomics rather than feature completeness.
“And then I use Just for a week and become a diehard fan.”
“I've started to embrace Just (https://github.com/casey/just) which is basically just a simpler Make.”
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“just[1] is now a very mature and well thought out alternative.”
Team workflows · 3
Teams route onboarding and common tasks through just recipes that are easy to spot.
“Everything the team did (including onboarding), had to be done via a just[1] recipe.”
“run ‘just services’ and it all “just works (tm)””
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“I've started to embrace Just (https://github.com/casey/just) which is basically just a simpler Make.”
Maturity · 1
Called a mature, well thought out Make alternative, especially where Make on Windows is painful.
“just[1] is now a very mature and well thought out alternative.”
Caveats and dissent
Narrow scope · 1
One commenter later preferred mise because it also manages tools and environment variables.
“And then I use Just for a week and become a diehard fan.”
Often compared with
Who recommends it in their own words
Threads where it came up
- Use Task Runners for Common Coding Tasks 2 mentions
- Ask HN: Alternatives to GitHub 1 mention
- In Emacs, Everything Looks Like a Service 1 mention
- Podman v6.0.0 1 mention
- Using Changesets in a polyglot monorepo 1 mention
- Ask HN: What dev tools do you rely on that nobody talks about? 1 mention
Also written as Just. Data: just.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 10
“But sometimes it's applied properly!”
“I have been using just for some projects and really like it.”
“And then I use Just for a week and become a diehard fan.”
“Everything the team did (including onboarding), had to be done via a just[1] recipe.”
“run ‘just services’ and it all “just works (tm)””
“As the author, I also love `just` and I have the CI steps as `just fmt`, etc.”
“for more structured scripting.”
“just[1] is now a very mature and well thought out alternative.”
“I've started to embrace Just (https://github.com/casey/just) which is basically just a simpler Make.”
“Typically I use a single Makefile/Justfile”