Lore: next-generation open source version control

Maintained by Epic Games, Lore is designed for unprecedented scalability of both data and teams. It’s optimized for projects—including games and entertainment—that combine code with large binary assets, and caters for the needs of developers and artists alike.

Get started with Lore

Find us on GitHub

Access and contribute to Lore on the Epic Games GitHub.

Read the docs

Delve into Lore’s ethos and architecture.

Join the conversation

Chat with us and our community on Discord.

Overview

Easy setup, on-demand scalability

Get started in local mode in minutes. Then, scale up as far and as fast as you need.

Fast and efficient processes

Scale without slowdowns, thanks to shared, reusable data and as-needed downloads.

Free branching

Quickly and easily create, manage, and sync branches to freely experiment, iterate, and release.

History you can trust

Confidently track and manage revisions with Lore's verifiable tamper-evident source of truth.

Intuitive interface

Enjoy complete one-to-one access to the full Lore functionality via the CLI.

Full-surface API

Extend, customize, and integrate Lore via C/C++, C#, Rust, Go, Python, or JavaScript.

Lore’s architecture

Lore is a centralized, content-addressed version control system that represents repository state as Merkle trees and an immutable revision chain, optimized for binary-first storage, deduplication, and sparse/on-demand data hydration at scale.

Content-addressed storage

Repository data is stored and referenced by content hash in a Merkle tree, enabling fast comparisons, integrity checks, and reuse across history and branches.

Immutable revision chain

A revision's hash signature is derived from its revision state, including parent revision hashes and contained data hashes, forming an immutable chain with cryptographic integrity.

Chunked storage for large files

Files are stored as reusable chunks with indexed lookup, reducing duplication and enabling efficient updates and transfer for large binary assets.

On-demand hydration and sparse workspaces

Workspaces can stay lightweight by fetching file data only when needed, so you don't have to download everything up front.

Centralized service with caching

A service-backed architecture uses caching in front of durable storage to scale throughput for large teams and repositories.

Lightweight branches and fast switching

Branches are lightweight mutable references, so creating and switching branches is low-overhead without duplication of underlying data.

Lore’s repositories

Lore Library, Server & CLI

Javascript SDK

Python SDK

C# SDK

Go SDK

Fully open source

At Epic, we believe a truly open ecosystem won’t be built by any one company, but collectively and collaboratively using open standards. That’s why Lore is fully open source and released under an MIT license. Let’s build the version control system of the future in the open, learning from each other’s needs and ideas from the start. Come join us!

Frequently asked questions

What is Lore?

How is Lore licensed?

Why open source?

How does Lore differ from other version control solutions?

What platforms does Lore support, and where can I find the SDKs?

How do I get started?

Does Lore support file locking?

What infrastructure do I need to run a Lore server?

How does Lore handle merge conflicts?

How do I report a security vulnerability?

Is Lore production-ready?

Does Lore have a desktop client?

Where is Lore already in use at Epic?

How can I contribute?

Will Lore always be fully open source?

What’s on the roadmap?

Who maintains Lore?