Theory

Updated

October 30, 2026

Theory: Git is Already Distributed; Forges are Not

Every clone is a replica of objects. Federation of issues and PRs needs extra protocols (ForgeFed, ActivityPub) or boring mirroring.

Invariants

  1. Mirroring is practical federation of Git objects.
  2. Cross-instance PRs are still experimental.
  3. Radicle and similar try to drop the forge as a single host.
clone A  ←→  clone B     (Git, solved)
forge A  ─?─  forge B     (issues/PRs, unsolved at scale)

What can break

  • Assuming Codeberg and GitHub issues sync because remotes do.

How to read this chapter

Git as primitive, federated hosting, readiness.