Grip

Grip is the version control system that powers Forged Codes. It combines the distributed nature of Git, the branching model of Mercurial, and the stack-based workflow of Graphite (gt) — with every feature GitHub and GitLab advertise, but no graphical interface.

That last part is by design.

The Core Idea

GitHub and GitLab built web frontends on top of existing version control. Grip inverts that: we provide the backend infrastructure, and you build the frontend your users interact with. You bring the brand, the design, the experience. We handle hosting, version control operations, CI/CD, registries, and security.

Think of it like AWS, but for code infrastructure.

What Grip Includes

Version Control Engine

A VCS that merges the strengths of three systems:

Git — Distributed, fast, and ubiquitous. Grip uses Git-compatible protocols so existing tooling works out of the box.
Mercurial — Safer branching and merging semantics. Named branches that persist, better merge handling, and a cleaner mental model for large monorepos.
Graphite (gt) — Stack-based pull requests. Create dependent PR chains, iterate on them independently, and merge in sequence. No more blocked pipelines.

Repository Hosting

Hosted repositories with unlimited private repos, fine-grained access controls, and API-driven management. No GUI required — manage everything through the Grip CLI or API.

CI/CD Pipelines

Automated build, test, and deployment pipelines triggered by pushes and merges. Define pipelines in configuration files, run them on our infrastructure, and get results through the API or your own frontend.

Package Registry

The Forged Codes Registry — a secure, scalable package registry with organization-level access controls, audit trails, and webhook integrations. npm, PyPI, Maven, and more, all unified under one API.

Security

End-to-end encryption for all repository data
Dependency vulnerability scanning
Signature verification for commits and tags
Fine-grained access controls at the org, team, repo, and branch level
Complete audit trails for compliance

Grip Is Not a GitHub Clone

Grip has no web UI. No pull request pages, no file browsers, no issue trackers built into a web app. Those are your responsibility — and your opportunity.

When you build on Grip, you control:

How users interact with their code — Your frontend, your UX, your design language
What features you surface — Stack-based workflows, code review, issue tracking — pick and choose
Pricing and packaging — Charge what you want, bundle what you want
Data ownership — Your customers' data lives on your infrastructure, accessed through your policies

The API

Everything in Grip is API-first. If you can do it in a GUI, you can do it through the API — because the API came first.

# Create a repository
grip repo create my-org/my-project --private

# Push a stack of dependent changes
grip stack submit --base main --head feature-1 feature-2 feature-3

# Check pipeline status
grip pipeline status --watch

# Publish a package
grip publish --registry npm ./dist

Infrastructure Model

Grip runs on Forged Codes infrastructure. You don't manage servers, databases, or CDN configuration. Your users get fast, reliable access to their code regardless of scale.

Multi-region deployment — Repositories are available globally with low-latency clones
99.99% uptime SLA — We keep the lights on
Horizontal scaling — From solo developers to enterprises
Compliance — SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR — we handle the audits so you don't have to

Getting Started

# Install the Grip CLI
curl -fsSL https://get.grip.forged.codes | sh

# Authenticate
grip auth login

# Create your first project
grip init my-project
grip push

Forged Codes — Your Code. Your Brand. Our Infrastructure.