What is Tangled?
Tangled is a new git forge, like Github, Gitlab, and Codeberg. The main difference is that Tangled is built on the AT Protocol (like Bluesky) and is partially decentralized. The main reasoning behind Tangled is that users can fully own and self-govern their code. The developers hope this will turn coding social and fun again.
Tangled is still very new, and every contribution counts, if you're interested by the end of reading this article, I suggest you look into contributing to Tangled. I've contributed to tangled a little bit myself.
Why Tangled Caught My Attention
I found tangled interesting because unlike Github, no one owns your code. Your code is yours entirely, not locked to the platform. Your code ownership is connected with your identity through the AT Protocol. Even if you don't like where tangled is going, you can just host your own instance, called a knot
The idea of a "knot" makes the system feel less like one website and more like a network. This helps when it comes to their idea of "reviving social coding"
The social side also stood out to me, while Github feels like an infrastructure with one company, Tangled seems more interested in community and making code feel more personal and social-driven. An example of this I saw was the vouching system. You can vouch or denounce users that you interact with. This helps with avoiding "ai slop" on the platform and further enhances the sense of "community" that tangled is trying to achieve and builds a web of trust.
It's New, and That's a Good Thing
Tangled is really new, that's not necessarily a bad thing though. While a lot of its infrastructure is still being put in place, they need help from the open-source community. If everyone contributes to Tangled, they can shape the culture and contribute to making Tangled a better software. From my week of being on the platform, I've seemed to love how everything is so far. Mostly everything works perfectly fine. While they lack some support for features on other Git forges, like project management tools, and mature CI/CD integrations, the core experience is there, it works and feels surprisingly usable.
Who (and who isnt) Tangled for?
I'll make this short. Tangled is for...
- people who contribute to open-source
- people who like decentralized software and self-hosting
- people who enjoy social coding
Tangled is not for...
- teams that want a "Github clone"
- people who want an isolated forge
- people who do not want dependency on the AT Protocol
- people who want private repositories (for now)
Why You Should Care
As more and more developers are moving away from Github, it becomes important to explore other options. Tangled is worth paying attention to. The current software development ecosystem is centralized around a few major platforms. It's convenient, but it also means our code, identities, projects, and histories depend on these companies we don't control. This can especially be seen recently with the controversies surrounding Github. Tangled offers a different direction: what if you code was tied to your identity instead of a platform? This unlocks the potential for social coding, secure accounts and identities and peace of mind knowing a major company doesn't own your code. Tangled is a great platform trying to answer that question, and it'll only keep getting better.
Final Thoughts
Tangled isn't perfect yet and there's still a lot to do, but its a project worth watching. I don't think it's at a stage where everyone should ditch Github and move over but I would say its worth making an account, pushing a few projects, reading the docs, and exploring the platform. Maybe you'll find an issue like I did, and hopefully contribute. And you might find that coding feels a little more personal again.