May 1, 2026
All DB, no homepage drama
Show HN: My Private GitHub on Postgres
A homemade GitHub rival wins cheers, side-eyes, and one giant “but where’s the website?”
TLDR: GitGres is a new self-hosted code platform that stores everything in one database instead of on disk, pitching itself as a private GitHub-style setup for teams. Commenters were split: some loved the backup simplicity, while others said calling it a GitHub rival without a website is a massive stretch.
A new project called GitGres just strutted onto Hacker News with a bold pitch: what if your team’s private coding hub worked more like a database than a traditional file server? The creator says it can store everything — code, pull requests, issues, comments, reactions, even team data — inside Postgres, a popular database system, instead of scattering it across disks. In plain English: it’s aiming to be a super-controlled, self-hosted alternative to GitHub for small teams and automated tools.
But the comments? Oh, they immediately made this less about the product and more about the vibes. The loudest reaction was basically: cool trick, but is this really “GitHub” without the part people actually use? One commenter delivered the killer blow by pointing out the missing web interface, saying that’s a huge reason GitHub became GitHub in the first place. Another asked the question hanging over the whole thread: why not just use GitLab or Forgejo if you want a private code server?
Still, the project had fans. One person loved the idea because backing up one database feels simpler than babysitting disk storage. Another got delightfully deep into the plumbing and treated the whole thing like a technical magic act. And then came the pure comedy: someone blamed GitHub itself for rate-limiting them on their first visit of the day, joking it was time to “knock another 9 off their status page.” In other words, GitGres sparked the internet’s favorite combo: genuine curiosity, immediate skepticism, and drive-by dunking on GitHub.
Key Points
- •GitGres is presented as a private, PostgreSQL-backed reimplementation starting point for GitHub-style code hosting and collaboration.
- •The article says all repository and collaboration data—including git objects, refs, pull requests, issues, comments, reviews, and events—is stored in PostgreSQL rows, with nothing kept on disk.
- •Setup consists of building release binaries, connecting to a PostgreSQL database, initializing the schema, and starting the server with an optional TLS configuration and bootstrap admin token.
- •GitGres supports plain git over smart HTTP, `gh` CLI integration, and a custom remote helper for cloning from a PostgreSQL-backed source.
- •Current limitations listed in the article include no search, actions/workflows/runs/secrets, SSH transport, webhooks, HTTP/2, and no web UI.