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Show HN: Nit — Git Rebuilt in Zig with libgit2, Claims 71% Token Savings for AI Coding Agents
Fielding Johnston released Nit, a Git replacement written in Zig that talks directly to the git object database via libgit2, optimizing output for machine consumption. Benchmarks show 71% savings on status, 87% on log, 35% on diff, and 55% on show --stat, with 1.44-1.64x speed improvements. HN discussion (21pts, 28 comments — 1.33 ratio) is skeptical: top comment argues git output is only 7% of bash tokens across 3K+ sessions, translating to ~60 tokens saved per session. The debate itself signals growing awareness that AI agent tooling needs machine-first interfaces, even if Nit's specific approach is contested.
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