Preview. These maps are our reading of public sources and haven't been checked with the projects' maintainers yet.
Fossil
Single-binary DVCS from the SQLite author with built-in wiki, tickets, forum, chat, and web UI. Autosync by default; history is never rewritten (no rebase).
fossil-scm.org/Active
Fossil 2.28 released 2026-03-11 (changes.wiki); 2.27 in 2025-09. (checked 2026-10-25)
In Version control beyond git
Where it stands apart
- How does it relate to git repositories? own storage format, with two-way git interop (16% of 19 others)
- Which layer of the stack does it mainly replace? version control and hosting together, as one system (15% of 20 others)
What it shares with most of the community
- Is it actively maintained? active (90% of 20 others)
- How is the main thing licensed? permissive open source (MIT/Apache/BSD) (53% of 19 others)
- Can it run entirely on your own device or infrastructure, without the maker's servers? yes (79% of 19 others)
- Do you need an account to use it? no account (67% of 18 others)
- Who is it for? developers (90% of 20 others)
- Can you commit, branch, and read history with no network connection? yes (94% of 17 others)
- Is it designed with AI coding agents in mind? no (65% of 20 others)
- What is the basic unit of history? (pick the most specific that applies) snapshots (commits) with no identity that survives a rewrite (74% of 19 others)
- Are stacked changes (a chain of dependent changes reviewed separately) a first-class workflow? no (53% of 15 others)
- How are merge conflicts mainly handled? must be resolved before the merge or commit completes (65% of 17 others)
- What size of project is it designed for? ordinary source repositories (74% of 19 others)
Not documented
The public sources we read don't say:
- How is it mainly sustained?
Nearest neighbors
- Game of Trees (Got) 81% of 16 shared answers match
- Sturdy 77% of 13 shared answers match
- Mercurial 75% of 16 shared answers match
Every answer
| Question | Answer | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Is it actively maintained? | active | source 2026-10-25 |
| How is the main thing licensed? | permissive open source (MIT/Apache/BSD) BSD-2-Clause. | source 2026-10-25 |
| How is it mainly sustained? | Not documented Written by SQLite architect; pages give no funding model. | source 2026-10-26 |
| Can it run entirely on your own device or infrastructure, without the maker's servers? | yes | source 2026-10-25 |
| Do you need an account to use it? | no account Single self-contained local executable; self-hosted. | source 2026-10-26 |
| Who is it for? | developers | source 2026-10-25 |
| Which shared standard or format does it mainly build on? | none of these (its own format or interface) Own SQLite-based repository format; git import/export only. | source 2026-10-26 |
| How does it relate to git repositories? | stands apart own storage format, with two-way git interop Built-in import from and export to git; a git mirror loses tickets and wiki. | source 2026-10-25 |
| Where does the authoritative copy of a project live? | every clone is a full peer; servers are optional Distributed, but autosync makes each commit sync immediately to the parent repo by default. | source 2026-10-25 |
| Can you commit, branch, and read history with no network connection? | yes | source 2026-10-25 |
| Is it designed with AI coding agents in mind? | no | source 2026-10-25 |
| Which layer of the stack does it mainly replace? | stands apart version control and hosting together, as one system VCS plus wiki, tickets, forum, and web UI in one binary. | source 2026-10-25 |
| What is the basic unit of history? (pick the most specific that applies) | snapshots (commits) with no identity that survives a rewrite | source 2026-10-25 |
| Are stacked changes (a chain of dependent changes reviewed separately) a first-class workflow? | no No rebase, so stacks of rewritten commits are not part of the model. | source 2026-10-25 |
| How are merge conflicts mainly handled? | must be resolved before the merge or commit completes | source 2026-10-25 |
| What size of project is it designed for? | ordinary source repositories Designed for SQLite-sized projects with small, close teams. | source 2026-10-25 |
| Is code review part of the product? | no review workflow Has tickets and a forum, but no pull-request style review. | source 2026-10-25 |
Sources
This page was derived from:
- Web page · fossil-scm.org/ · read 2026-10-25
- Web page · fossil-scm.org/home/doc/trunk/www/fossil-v-git.wiki · read 2026-10-25
- Web page · www.fossil-scm.org/home/doc/trunk/www/changes.wiki · read 2026-10-25
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