Trunks

The most powerful open-source POSIX-compatible, Git-native filesystem.

Trunks turns any backend into a Git-compatible remote. Point it at S3, R2, Tigris, GCS, Azure Blob, MinIO, Postgres, SFTP, a fileshare, or local disk. You get branches, commits, refs, push, pull, the whole protocol. No Git server. No service to operate. No control plane. No repo copy per workspace.

Applications write normal files. Developers run normal Git.

git remote add origin trunks://primary/my-app
git push -u origin main

That git push invokes git-remote-trunks, writes commit objects, and advances the branch ref straight into your configured storage. No GitHub. No Git server in between.

Install

pip install trunks
npm install @layerbrain/trunks

Quick Start

trunks storage add --name primary --backend local --path /tmp/trunks-store
mkdir my-app
cd my-app
trunks mount --repo my-app
echo "hello" > README.md
git add README.md
git commit -m "init"
git push

That's it. trunks mount initializes .git, wires origin -> trunks://primary/my-app, and sets the current branch to push there. Another machine can run git clone trunks://primary/my-app.

S3 here is whatever you have: GCS, Azure Blob, R2, Tigris, MinIO, Postgres, SFTP, fileshare, local disk. Trunks makes each one act like a Git remote. No Trunks server in the middle. No Git server in the middle.

How It Works

Trunks stores repos as Git-shaped objects in your backend. Real Git owns .git; Trunks only participates when Git invokes git-remote-trunks for a trunks:// remote.

s3://company-trunks/trunks/my-app.trunk/
├── objects/       blobs, trees, commits (sha-keyed, immutable)
├── refs/heads/    branch pointers (compare-and-swap)
└── journals/      crash recovery

• When a process writes a file, Trunks hashes the bytes into objects.
• When Git pushes, the remote helper uploads missing objects.
• When the push completes, Trunks advances the branch ref with compare-and-swap.

That's the whole protocol. Two writers can't clobber each other. Crashes don't corrupt state. Two machines sync by pointing at the same prefix.

Why It Exists

Modern software moves a lot of files across laptops, CI, sandboxes, servers, and storage buckets. Without version history, every write is just another blob that can overwrite the last one.

Git solves history. But Git expects a hosted server, a clone per agent, and has no native story for large or many repos.

Trunks keeps Git's commit objects and refs, drops the server, and writes straight to storage you already use. The bucket is the remote. So is the database, or the SFTP host. Work happens on branches, files are saved as commits, and diffs stay reviewable like any normal Git workflow.

What You Get

• Real files. Tools read and write with cat, vim, grep, npm, python. The SDKs are a convenience, not a requirement.
• Real Git. git log, git diff, git blame, git push, and git clone trunks://... operate through Git's standard remote-helper protocol.
• Real concurrency. Branches are pointers. Different branches never collide. Same branch is one CAS. One writer wins, the others retry.
• Real backends. S3, R2, Tigris, GCS, Azure Blob, MinIO, Postgres, SFTP, fileshare, local disk. Each one passes the same multi-commit, branch, merge, and CAS-conflict contract test.
• Real scale. Virtual mode mounts a 100GB repo without materializing it.
• Real portability. Same commands on a laptop, EC2, Lambda, Cloudflare Worker, Modal sandbox, Daytona, CI runner.

Mount Modes

trunks mount --repo my-app --path ./my-app
trunks mount --repo my-app --path ./my-app --watch
trunks mount --repo my-app --path ./my-app --storage primary
trunks mount --repo big-repo --path ./big-repo --mode virtual

Default is plain files. --watch keeps a journal so a crash doesn't lose work. --mode virtual sparsely materializes huge repos.

trunks mount also bootstraps git: it runs git init --initial-branch=main if .git is missing, adds origin -> trunks://<storage>/<repo> if no origin is configured, and sets the current branch upstream so plain git push works. With one primary storage profile this is automatic; pass --storage <name> if you have several. Pass --no-git to skip the bootstrap.

Branches Are Pointers

One branch per task. Creating one is a single ref write. No copy.

trunks branch create --name feature/auth --from main
trunks branch switch --name feature/auth
trunks shell
git add .
git commit -m "update auth"
git push

Two writers on different branches don't collide. Two writers on the same branch race a compare-and-swap. One wins. The other retries.

Git Without GitHub

git remote add origin trunks://primary/my-app
git push -u origin main
git clone trunks://primary/my-app ./my-app-copy

trunks://primary/my-app resolves the configured primary storage profile and the my-app repo namespace. Same commits. Same refs. Your storage.

Mirrors

Add one primary storage profile and any number of explicit mirrors:

trunks storage add primary --backend s3 --bucket company-trunks
trunks storage add backup --mirror --backend s3 --bucket company-trunks-backup
git push origin main

Pushes to trunks://primary/<repo> write through a strict multi-backend path. The primary ref update is CAS-fenced, and configured mirrors receive the same objects, branch refs, and push trigger refs. Inline URLs such as trunks+s3://bucket/path target only that one backend.

Python

Use the Python SDK when your application wants files and commits without shelling out.

from trunks import Trunk

with Trunk(name="my-app") as trunk:
    trunk.write("task.md", b"Fix auth\n")
    trunk.commit(message="update auth")
    trunk.push()

async with Trunk(name="my-app") as trunk:
    await trunk.write("task.md", b"Fix auth\n")
    await trunk.commit(message="update auth")
    await trunk.push()

Node

import { Trunks } from "@layerbrain/trunks";

const trunks = new Trunks();
const fs = await trunks.mount({ repo: "my-app", path: "./my-app", watch: true });

await fs.write("task.md", "Fix auth\n");
await fs.checkpoint("update auth");
await fs.push();

Resource API

CLI, Python, and Node share the same resource API.

trunks repo create --name my-app --backend s3://company-trunks --json
trunks branch list --json --limit 20 --offset 0

client = Trunks(cwd="./my-app")
client.branches.create(name="feature/auth", from_ref="main")

const trunks = new Trunks();
await trunks.branches.create({ name: "feature/auth", from: "main" });

List calls return the same envelope everywhere:

{
  "object": "list",
  "data": [],
  "limit": 20,
  "offset": 0,
  "total_count": 0,
  "has_more": false
}

Where To Next

Backend guides:

• S3-compatible storage
• Azure Blob Storage
• Google Cloud Storage
• Postgres
• SFTP
• Local disk and fileshares

Examples:

• Mastra
• OpenAI Agents SDK
• LangChain / LangGraph
• CrewAI
• Pydantic AI
• Agno
• E2B
• Daytona
• Blaxel

Actions:

• Daytona + MinIO

MIT licensed.