We enjoy the benefits of distributed version control with our source code: the ability to pull, push and merge multiple streams of work and view the provenance of all changes. Irmin is a library that provides mergeable binary datastructures that can be manipulated much like Git (with pull, push and merge operators), and form higher level control structures for persistent work queues, key-value stores, all with well-defined consistency properties. The results of Irmin operations can be viewed directly using Git, leading to a fresh perspective on how to debug and trace complex distributed systems.

In this talk, I'll introduce the Irmin library by means of a functional queue, show how the Git mirroring works, and then demonstrate some more complex applications such as its use in as a unikernel storage layer. Irmin also works in the browser as a pure JavaScript library, and I will demonstrate the "Cuekeeper" GTD application built using it. Finally, I'll discuss some of the implications of designing our applications to be Git friendly.