Preview. These maps are our reading of public sources and haven't been checked with the projects' maintainers yet.
Sapling
Meta's source control client (evolved from Mercurial) focused on usability and scale: smartlog, stacks, undo, Interactive Smartlog UI. Works with git repositories and GitHub; Meta's server and virtual filesystem are not fully public.
sapling-scm.com/Active
Release 0.2.20260929 published 2026-09-29; facebook/sapling pushed 2026-10-25 (GitHub API). (checked 2026-10-25)
In Version control beyond git
Where it stands apart
- How is it mainly sustained? big company side project (13% of 16 others)
- How does it relate to git repositories? own storage format, with two-way git interop (16% of 19 others)
- Are stacked changes (a chain of dependent changes reviewed separately) a first-class workflow? yes, the workflow is built around stacks (20% of 15 others)
- What size of project is it designed for? very large monorepos or large binary assets (21% of 19 others)
- Is code review part of the product? no, it hands off to an external forge's review (e.g. GitHub pull requests) (11% of 19 others)
What it shares with most of the community
- Is it actively maintained? active (90% of 20 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)
- How are merge conflicts mainly handled? must be resolved before the merge or commit completes (65% of 17 others)
Nearest neighbors
- git-branchless 76% of 17 shared answers match
- Jujutsu (jj) 65% of 17 shared answers match
- Mercurial 65% of 17 shared answers match
Every answer
| Question | Answer | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Is it actively maintained? | active | source 2026-10-25 |
| How is the main thing licensed? | copyleft or source-available with restrictions GPL-2.0. | source 2026-10-25 |
| How is it mainly sustained? | stands apart big company side project | source 2026-10-25 |
| Can it run entirely on your own device or infrastructure, without the maker's servers? | yes With git repos, the client runs fully locally; the Sapling server and virtual filesystem for Meta-scale use are 'not yet available publicly'. | source 2026-10-25 |
| Do you need an account to use it? | no account Local client; only a GitHub token for PR features. | source 2026-10-26 |
| Who is it for? | developers | source 2026-10-25 |
| Which shared standard or format does it mainly build on? | git (repository format and protocol) Public use clones and pushes git repos (own internal model). | source 2026-10-26 |
| How does it relate to git repositories? | stands apart own storage format, with two-way git interop Own storage and model; git support for clone/push/pull, with rough edges noted in its own docs. | source 2026-10-25 |
| Where does the authoritative copy of a project live? | every clone is a full peer; servers are optional | 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? | the version control system itself | 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 Snapshots with commit-mutation tracking for hide/unamend/undo, not stable change IDs. | source 2026-10-25 |
| Are stacked changes (a chain of dependent changes reviewed separately) a first-class workflow? | stands apart yes, the workflow is built around stacks Built for stacked commits; amending a lower commit restacks the ones above. | source 2026-10-25 |
| How are merge conflicts mainly handled? | must be resolved before the merge or commit completes Rebase-instead-of-merge workflow; conflicts resolved during the rebase. | source 2026-10-25 |
| What size of project is it designed for? | stands apart very large monorepos or large binary assets | source 2026-10-25 |
| Is code review part of the product? | stands apart no, it hands off to an external forge's review (e.g. GitHub pull requests) Submits stacks to GitHub pull requests (sl pr / ghstack); ReviewStack is a separate UI. | source 2026-10-25 |
Sources
This page was derived from:
- GitHub · github.com/facebook/sapling · read 2026-10-25
- Web page · sapling-scm.com/ · read 2026-10-25
- Web page · sapling-scm.com/docs/introduction/ · read 2026-10-25
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