# Git was built for humans -- agents need an upgrade

DevFeed: [Git was built for humans -- agents need an upgrade](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/git-was-built-for-humans-agents-need-an-upgrade-92.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://about.gitlab.com/blog/gitlab-next-gen-scm/>)

Author: Jessica Taylor

Published: 2026-08-26T00:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [GitLab](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/gitlab.md>)

Topics: [AI-assisted coding](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ai-assisted-coding.md>), [Amazon S3](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/amazon-s3.md>)

Tags: [agents](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/agents.md>), [api](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/api.md>), [architecture](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/architecture.md>), [backend](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/backend.md>), [concurrency](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/concurrency.md>), [engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/engineering.md>), [features](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/features.md>), [git](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/git.md>), [product](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/product.md>), [s3](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/s3.md>), [scm](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/scm.md>)

## AI overview

GitLab describes next-generation source code management designed for large numbers of agents. Its proposed design preserves Git-protocol compatibility while replacing full repository clones with targeted server-side queries and purpose-built read/write APIs.

## Source excerpt

The industry is now racing to rebuild source code management for agents. We showed our answer at GitLab Transcend, but let's reiterate why rebuilding the Git backend is only half the problem. Three things break when agents become the primary users of a Git server. Every developer running hundreds of agents hits the same wall, regardless of tools: The clone tax. An agent clones an entire repository to read a single file, then does it again for the next agent, and the next retry, transferring far more data than the task requires and burning context on a local grep or blame it shouldn't have needed to run. One agent invocation today can mean 5GB to 10GB transferred and 30+ seconds of setup, just to answer a single question. Concurrency collapse. Thousands of sessions hit a backend that was originally designed for human scale, producing bottlenecks and unpredictable availability. No isolation. Agents share accounts and one branch space, so they overwhelm the repository, leave no clean way to discard abandoned work, and keep no record of which agent did what. Our platform data shows how fast the pressure is building. Over the past year, our customers created 40% more CI/CD pipelines, and code pushes to GitLab.com were up 50%. While the secure repositories grew by 60%, codebase sizes have also grown by up to 500%. When we announced next-generation source code management (next-gen SCM) at GitLab Transcend in June, we walked through how Git, as an operational model, was not designed for the load agents placed on it. A few weeks later, new entrants, including Git hosts built specifically for agent-scale concurrency, are validating that claim independently. That convergence sharpens why rebuilding the Git backend is necessary, but on its own, it's still not enough. What we're building for agent scale Next-gen SCM runs on the Git protocol for backward compatibility, with a redesigned backend and interfaces built for agents. Instead of cloning a full working tree, agents query