
josh
Git at scale platform
The Lens
Josh solves a specific monorepo headache: working with one folder of a giant repository as if it were its own small repo, full Git history and all, without cloning the entire thing. If your company keeps everything in one massive monorepo but a team only cares about one corner of it, Josh projects that corner out as a standalone repo they can clone, commit to, and push back. MIT licensed and free.
The core piece is josh-proxy, an HTTP and SSH Git proxy that transforms history on the fly and shares a cache across everyone hitting it. There is also a local CLI for the same projections, reusable filter and workspace configs you version like code, and a GraphQL API so build systems can query repo state without checking anything out. It is written in Rust, which shows in how it handles large histories.
This is infrastructure for organizations that have already committed to a monorepo and hit the wall: slow clones, access boundaries, CI that rebuilds the world. Solo developers and small teams almost certainly do not need it. The teams that do tend to know exactly why. Standing up josh-proxy and writing good filters is real work, not a weekend setup.
The catch is that Josh is powerful precisely because it sits between developers and Git, which means it is one more piece of infrastructure to run, monitor, and keep available. When the proxy is down, the projections are down. Treat it like the production service it becomes.
Free vs Self-Hosted vs Paid
fully freeWhat's Free
All of it. MIT licensed. The josh-proxy server, the CLI, the filter and workspace system, and the GraphQL API are open source with no paid tier.
Self-Hosted
This is the only way to run it, and it is real ops:
- josh-proxy: a service you deploy, cache, and keep highly available.
- Filters: versioned configs you design and maintain per projection.
- Hardware: scales with repo size and team; the cache wants fast disk.
The Real Cost
Engineering time. Designing projections, operating the proxy, and integrating it with CI is a meaningful investment. The payoff only makes sense once a monorepo is genuinely hurting.
vs Alternatives
- git subtree / submodules: built in, free, but clumsy at scale.
- Google's Copybara: one-way mirroring, not live projection.
- Sparse checkout / partial clone: native Git, simpler, less powerful than Josh's projections.
Free and open source under MIT. The cost is operational: josh-proxy is real infrastructure to run, and the payoff only arrives once a monorepo is genuinely hurting.
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License: MIT License
Use freely, including commercial. Just keep the license.
Commercial use: ✓ Yes
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