PROJECT OVERVIEW
A research-phase git hosting service exploring federated issues and patches, plus a virtual filesystem layer for streaming large binary assets like a Perforce-style workspace.
Inkable is a git hosting service concept built around federated issues and patch workflows, with a second layer focused on large-asset delivery for game development. The research direction is to combine Git’s distributed version graph with a transparent virtual filesystem so repositories behave like normal working directories while large binaries stream in only when tools actually touch them.
The core split is deliberate: Git handles metadata, refs, manifests, trees, and commits, while textures, models, audio, builds, and other heavy assets live in a content-addressed object store. A VFS layer then exposes the repository through a normal filesystem interface and lazily materializes file content on open and read, backed by a deduplicated local cache with eviction and offline reuse.
Why It Exists
The goal is to replace the practical limitations of Git LFS without abandoning Git-compatible workflows. Inkable is researching a system that can offer Perforce-like streaming performance, metadata-only clone and checkout, transparent sparse usage for editors and engines, branch-aware cache reuse across content hashes, optional centralized locking for binary collaboration, background prefetching, and correct version resolution between Git commits and asset blobs across Linux, macOS, and Windows.