Coming from git
Keep git. Thumper syncs the folder and keeps its own state in .thumper/; it never reads or writes .git/. Your .gitignore is honoured, and a .thumperignore adds Thumper-only rules on top.
What changes
| git habit | Thumper | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| git add + commit | Edits are already on the branch's live frontier. A seal is the commit: name it, and it is signed and content-addressed. | ||
| git push | There is no push. There was never a private copy; collaborators on the branch see the frontier move. | ||
| git lfs | Not needed. Weights and media are chunked and deduplicated into the object store as part of the same repository. | ||
| merge conflicts | Source text merges at the character level. Two devices editing the same binary keep both copies, one renamed with a sync-conflict suffix. | ||
# git keeps its own ignores; add Thumper-only rules hereoutputs/*.ckpt.tmp
Coming from GitHub or GitLab
Two paths. Link the upstream as a mirror: the node polls it hourly, records the newest commit as a staged draft, refreshes the README, licence and star count on the public page, and the Code tab browses the upstream files until the draft is published. Or clone in the browser: the Code tab's clone goes through the node's same-origin relay to an allow-listed host, so the git protocol runs client-side and nothing is stored on the node.
Mirror link
Developer view › Settings › Upstream source. Public GitHub and Hugging Face repositories need no token; private ones take a token that is stored encrypted and never shown again. Pull is the only direction: Thumper never pushes back to the upstream.
What does not come across
Issues, pull requests, Actions, wikis and releases stay on GitHub or GitLab. Thumper has its own issues, proposals, native checks and signed releases; a mirror carries code, README, licence and stars.
Coming from Hugging Face
A model repository on Hugging Face links the same way as GitHub: the mirror reads the repository's revision, README (model card) and likes. Weights are large-file chunks on Thumper rather than LFS pointers, so a seal carries the exact bytes it was made from. Model packs describe how a set of weights runs on each GPU class; see the model developer guide.
Gated or private models need a token on the link. The public page shows the card's licence and the like count as upstream stars.
Coming from DVC, Oxen or lakeFS
These tools version data next to, or instead of, source. Thumper does both in one repository: text lanes for source and configuration, chunked bytes for data and weights, one seal covering both. There is no pointer file to commit and no separate remote to configure.
| Tool | Its model | On Thumper | |
|---|---|---|---|
| DVC | .dvc pointer files in git, data in a remote | Put the data in the repository; drop the pointer files and the remote. Keep the pipeline definitions as source. | |
| Oxen | content-addressed data repo with .oxen/ | Sync the folder; .oxen/ is ignored by default and left alone. Thumper stores its own state in .thumper/. | |
| lakeFS | branches and commits over an object store | Closest relative: Thumper's seals are also commits over an object store, with signatures, provenance and text lanes on top. | |
How Thumper compares
| Thumper | git / GitHub | Hugging Face / DVC / lakeFS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit of history | seal: signed, content-addressed, with provenance | commit | commit / DVC pointer / lakeFS commit |
| Working copy | shared live frontier; auto-checkpoints; no push | private clone; push | clone + pull/push |
| Large files | chunked and deduplicated in the object store, same repo | Git LFS pointer files | HF LFS / DVC remote / lakeFS object store |
| Merge of source text | character-level CRDT merge; conflicts never overwrite | three-way line merge; conflict markers | same as git |
| Encryption | private E2EE repositories: the server cannot read them | none (server reads everything) | none / at-rest only |
| Runs the app | yes: desktop and cloud runs are part of the listing | no | HF Spaces run demos; DVC/lakeFS do not run |
| Reviews, stars, watch | yes, on the listing and the repository | stars, watch, discussions | HF likes; none for DVC/lakeFS |
| Import from elsewhere | mirror link (pull-only, hourly, staged as drafts) or browser git clone through the relay | — | — |