Solving Git's Pain Points with Jujutsu (with Martin von Zweigbergk)

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Oct 9, 2025

Join Martin von Zweigbergk, the creator of Jujutsu (JJ) and a source-control expert from Google, as he tackles Git’s limitations. Discover how JJ offers automatic snapshotting for easy commit management and handles conflicts uniquely by storing them as commits. Martin explains the absence of a staging area, making the workflow more fluid, and shares insights on rebasing and powerful undo capabilities. With plans for advanced features like copy tracking and large-file support, JJ could reshape your version control experience!

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ANECDOTE

Origin Story From Google Work

Martin built JJ following an idea from his Google source-control work to snapshot working copies automatically.
That single UX experiment expanded into a full VCS project with broader implications.

INSIGHT

Multi-Level Conflict Resolution

The conflict algebra runs at many granularities: trees, files, hunks, and refs.
That lets JJ simplify conflicts at the appropriate level and even mark bookmarks as conflicted when needed.

ADVICE

Choose Compiled Languages For VCS

Write VCS core logic in a compiled systems language for performance-sensitive operations.
Martin chose Rust to avoid Python's I/O and performance limits while staying safer than C.

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Git might be the most ubiquitous tool in software development, but that doesn't mean it's perfect. What if we could keep Git compatibility while fixing its most frustrating aspects—painful merges, scary rebases, being stuck in conflict states, and the confusing staging area?

This week we're joined by Martin von Zweigbergk, creator of Jujutsu (JJ), a Git-compatible version control system that takes a fundamentally different approach. Starting from a simple idea—automatically snapshotting your working copy—Martin has built a tool that reimagines how we interact with version control. We explore the clever algebra behind Jujutsu's conflict handling that lets you store conflicts as commits and move freely through your repository even when things are broken. We discuss why there's no staging area, how the operation log gives you powerful undo/redo capabilities, and why rebasing becomes trivially easy when you can edit any commit in your history and have changes automatically propagate forward.

Whether you're a Git power user frustrated by interactive rebases, someone who's lost work to a botched merge, or just curious about how version control could work differently, this conversation offers fresh perspectives on a tool we all take for granted. And if you're working with large monorepos or game development assets, Martin's vision for the future of Jujutsu might be exactly what you've been waiting for.

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Jujutsu (JJ): https://github.com/martinvonz/jj

Jujutsu Documentation: https://martinvonz.github.io/jj/

Git: https://git-scm.com/

Mercurial: https://www.mercurial-scm.org/

Rust: https://www.rust-lang.org/

Watchman: https://facebook.github.io/watchman/

Google Piper: https://research.google/pubs/why-google-stores-billions-of-lines-of-code-in-a-single-repository/

Kris on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/krisajenkins.bsky.social

Kris on Mastodon: http://mastodon.social/@krisajenkins

Kris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisjenkins/