Tangled
Decentralized Git hosting and code collaboration platform built on the AT Protocol.
HN commenters like Tangled as a federated GitHub alternative built on ATProto123, with self-hostable knots45 and a UI they find pleasant.67 The most common complaint is that it has no private repos8910, and some find its social-coding angle off-putting.111213
Why people recommend it
Federated design · 3
Built on ATProto, so code is not locked into one central point of failure and contributors can use existing accounts.
“I'm delighted at the idea of having my own knot hosting my projects”
“The federated design of Tangled solves the latter problem”
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“You might wanna check out Tangled, which is built on ATProto and actually wants to be a general-purpose decentralized GitHub competitor for the long run”
Self-hosted knots · 3
Users can run their own knot and spindle on a home server while staying connected to the wider network.
“it's cool to have all of that self-hosted on my own machine yet still part of the AT proto world!”
“Tangled is missing some important features (private repos, protected branches). The ui feels more comfy to me, though.”
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“then Tangled for anything I want to share with my own runner”
GitHub alternative · 3
Seen as a credible GitHub replacement, partly because of its social coding features.
“I've really enjoyed Tangled. It has so far been what I've wanted from a GitHub replacement”
“Arguably the "social coding" angle is the reason why Tangled is the only actual alternative to GitHub.”
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“Tangled, Codeberg or self-hosted Forgejo (my approach) or Gitea are all good alternative solutions here.”
Smooth migration · 3
Users who moved from Codeberg describe an easy switch, and pushing to hosted knots is simple.
“I switched from codeberg to tangled, and the transition couldn't have been smoother.”
“Personally this makes me glad I moved to Tangled rather than Codeberg.”
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“Tangled is missing some important features (private repos, protected branches). The ui feels more comfy to me, though.”
Pleasant UI · 3
Commenters describe the UI and UX as pleasant and comfortable, with easy pull requests.
“Find the UI and UX overall very pleasant.”
“Tangled is missing some important features (private repos, protected branches). The ui feels more comfy to me, though.”
Show 1 more
“tangled seems to do this pretty well”
Developer features · 2
Commenters point to stacked PRs, jujutsu support, CI in Nix VMs and SSH log watching.
“It looks like it has so many cool features -- stacked PRs, jujutsu support, CI in Nix VMs.”
“Find the UI and UX overall very pleasant.”
Caveats and dissent
No private repos · 3
All ATProto data is public, so private repos are not supported until a permissioned data spec arrives.
“I love tangled, but there are certain repos I don't want public.”
“Last time I tried Tangled they had no concept of private repos.”
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“only open for public repositories until Atproto finishes their permissioned data spec.”
Social coding angle · 3
Some find the social-network aspect off-putting or don't want to tie their code to a social account.
“The "social media" platform aspect is really offputting.”
“tangled seems to do this pretty well”
Show 1 more
“This "social coding" thing Tangled has going on is cool but I don't want it.”
Missing features · 3
Commenters note it lacks protected branches and SHA256 repo support, and has fewer features than GitHub.
“Tangled is missing some important features (private repos, protected branches). The ui feels more comfy to me, though.”
“I wanted to use tangled but my repo is SHA256 and you sadly don’t support it.”
Show 1 more
“I've really enjoyed Tangled. It has so far been what I've wanted from a GitHub replacement”
Rough edges · 2
Users report a confusing sign-in domain that breaks password managers, and a weak web UI for spindle job queues.
“Find the UI and UX overall very pleasant.”
“it's cool to have all of that self-hosted on my own machine yet still part of the AT proto world!”
Appview dependence · 1
One user worries about web visibility if the main Tangled appview goes down without a self-hostable client.
“Really looking forward to seeing Tangled develop!”
Often compared with
Who recommends it in their own words
From the makers not counted in the ranking
“We don't yet support private repos, correct.”
“setting up a knot via Nix or Docker is super easy”
“The neat thing about Tangled is you can build your own frontend pretty quickly.”
Threads where it came up
- Ask HN: Alternatives to GitHub 25 mentions
- Tangled – We need a federation of forges 3 mentions
- The federated code forge 2 mentions
- Building on ATProto 2 mentions
- Codeberg Bans Cryptocurrency Projects 2 mentions
- Incident with Git Operations, Pull Requests and Actions – Resolved 1 mention
Data: tangled.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 36
“Really looking forward to seeing Tangled develop!”
“I'm delighted at the idea of having my own knot hosting my projects”
“Tangled, Codeberg or self-hosted Forgejo (my approach) or Gitea are all good alternative solutions here.”
“The "social media" platform aspect is really offputting.”
“I'm betting on Tangled and Codeberg.”
“they (or I) may be the target market of Tangled while not being into the social network aspect of it.”
“I register my 'knot' with my account on Tangled.org which is exposed through a public domain.”
“you can just use Tangled without the social network aspect.”
“if everybody moved to Tangled, I would have to somehow interact with it”
“The federated design of Tangled solves the latter problem”
“Tangled feels like the future”
“it's cool to have all of that self-hosted on my own machine yet still part of the AT proto world!”
“Find the UI and UX overall very pleasant.”
“I wanted to use tangled but my repo is SHA256 and you sadly don’t support it.”
“Arguably the "social coding" angle is the reason why Tangled is the only actual alternative to GitHub.”
“I would like to try Tangled if I can set it up in a completely private configuration”
“tangled seems to do this pretty well”
“only open for public repositories until Atproto finishes their permissioned data spec.”
“they seem to be a young, smart and energetic team on a great trajectory”
“It looks like it has so many cool features -- stacked PRs, jujutsu support, CI in Nix VMs.”
“then Tangled for anything I want to share with my own runner”
https://tangled.sh
“You might wanna check out Tangled, which is built on ATProto and actually wants to be a general-purpose decentralized GitHub competitor for the long run”
“I love tangled, but there are certain repos I don't want public.”
“I switched from codeberg to tangled, and the transition couldn't have been smoother.”
“go look at https://tangled.org/ or something.”
“Personally this makes me glad I moved to Tangled rather than Codeberg.”
“Tangled is missing some important features (private repos, protected branches). The ui feels more comfy to me, though.”
“check out tangled https://tangled.org/”
“This "social coding" thing Tangled has going on is cool but I don't want it.”
“Like Tangled, but with private repos.”
“Tangled is great and I hope we can go beyond federation”
“I've really enjoyed Tangled. It has so far been what I've wanted from a GitHub replacement”
“Last time I tried Tangled they had no concept of private repos.”
“tangled is built on top of ATproto (the protocol behind Bluesky)”
“I recommend looking at https://tangled.org”