Andrew Nesbitt6d ago
Andrew Nesbitt
Nerd sniped by @bzg into writing about git remote helpers: https://nesbitt.io/2026/03/18/git-remote-helpers.html
Git Remote Helpers

Git can talk to anything if you write the right helper.

Andrew Nesbitt
Mar 18 at 3:55pmWeb
Show threadSimon Tournier6d ago

@andrewnez @bzg Oh that’s cool!

We recently had a similar idea in Guix, being able to run:

guix time-machine -C swh:1:cnt:123abc…

where it means a remote channels.scm file archived on SWH.

https://codeberg.org/guix/guix/pulls/6745#issuecomment-11219248

WIP: Allow `pull` and `time-machine` to download channel files

This implements a proposal [discussed a while back](https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2024-01/msg00201.html): supporting invocations like `guix time-machine -C https://example.org/channels.scm`.<br><br>To do that, this patch set first changes `pull` and `time-machine` to evaluate chan...

Codeberg.org
Show threadval6d ago
@andrewnez @bzg "Software Heritage [...] returns objects individually rather than as packfiles"
we can probably do something about that eventually ;)
Show threadLudovic Courtès6d ago

@andrewnez @zimoun @bzg Neat!

One thing I like to demo when talking about Guix/SWH integration is this command (literally):

guix download --commit=dd911ac772989a7630b9f4d58f8b747cbc1c33fe http://example.org

Suffice to say that it gets you what you’re asking for. :-)

Example Domain

Show threadkpcyrd 🏴6d ago
@andrewnez @bzg git-remote-swh (or git-remote-swhid, with configurable lookup server) would be really cool, is this an actual project? :)
Show threadAndrew Nesbitt6d ago
@kpcyrd @bzg not yet but could be soon 😉
Show threadLluís Revilla6d ago
@andrewnez @bzg is there a git-remote-svn? It is not listed and I couldn't find any after a quick search.
On a project I collaborate the CI is on github but the orginal repo is not and this causes some issues when preparing a patch
Show threadAndrew Nesbitt6d ago
@Lluis_Revilla @bzg git svn is built into git, but doesn’t use the same plugin setup as it predates it
Show threadDavid Bremner6d ago

@andrewnez
It's not in a released version yet, but notmuch also has git remote helper

https://git.notmuchmail.org/git?p=notmuch;a=blob;f=git-remote-notmuch.c;hb=HEAD

@bzg

Show threadNiklas Wimmer5d ago

@andrewnez @bzg Surprised to see @radicle not mentioned :)

https://radicle.xyz/guides/user#publishing-ch-ch-ch-ch-changes has some info about their remote helper, not sure if there exists a dedicated page for it somewhere.

Would probably fit into the "P2P and decentralized" category.

Radicle: the sovereign forge

Sovereign code infrastructure.

Show threadAndrew Nesbitt5d ago
@nwimmer when i looked into the latest version of radicle, it looked like you could just clone it using regular https: git clone https://iris.radicle.xyz/z371PVmDHdjJucejRoRYJcDEvD5pp.git radicle.xyz
Show threadRadicle5d ago
@andrewnez @nwimmer It is possible to clone via HTTP from nodes that run a software component that we call `radicle-httpd`. However, this is not the way that Radicle users generally interact with the network. They use a Git remote helper. The crate is called `radicle-remote-helper`. It acts as the interface between the users' working repository and the network. It is a central piece of Radicle, and reasonably neat.
Show threadRadicle5d ago

@andrewnez @nwimmer See also https://radicle.xyz/guides/user and https://radicle.xyz/2025/08/12/canonical-references

Radicle users use the remote helper for opening/revising patches and accessing canonical references.

Radicle: the sovereign forge

Sovereign code infrastructure.