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# Epic Games Built Its Own Git Alternative For Handling Large Files
- URL: https://itsfoss.com/news/lore-launched/
- Published: 2026-06-18T18:05:32.000Z
- Updated: 2026-06-18T18:05:32.000Z
- Description: Written in Rust and released under the MIT license, Lore is a version control system for handling large, complex data.
- Author: Sourav Rudra
- Tags: News

Epic Games used its [State of Unreal 2026](https://www.unrealengine.com/news/state-of-unreal-2026-top-news-from-the-show?ref=itsfoss.com) keynote to announce Lore, an open source version control system the company built in-house and is releasing for free.

You see, game and film projects have a workflow where they have to mix source code with large binary files such as build inputs, big data files, and other generated content. The problem is that most existing [version control](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Version%5Fcontrol?ref=itsfoss.com) tools were not built to handle that kind of combination well.

[Git](https://git-scm.com/?ref=itsfoss.com) handles large binary files through an add-on called [Git LFS](https://git-lfs.com/?ref=itsfoss.com), rather than treating them as a built-in part of the system. [Perforce](https://www.perforce.com/?ref=itsfoss.com) manages binaries better, but it needs a live connection to its server for routine tasks, and it is a closed, proprietary system that other companies cannot build tools on top of.

Epic Games says none of the available systems combine binary handling, offline work, and a fully open specification together, which is why it built its own.

**Suggested Read 📖:** [*GitHub Alternatives to Host Your Open Source Projects*](https://itsfoss.com/github-alternatives/)

## How does it work?

![a terminal window screenshot showing the initial config step to get lore vcs up and running on linux](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2026/06/lore-linux-terminal-demo.png)

Lore keeps a server running as the authority for who can access a project and how conflicts get resolved, but everyday work like saving changes, recording a commit, or switching branches happens entirely on your machine, **without needing an internet connection**.

Every piece of content is given a unique fingerprint and stored only once, so identical data is never duplicated across files or branches.

It also has a verification system, so the structure of every revision can be checked for tampering or corruption. Large files are broken into smaller pieces, so editing one part of a multi-gigabyte file does not require re-uploading the whole thing.

And, by default, your machine only holds the files you are actually using, since Lore pulls down a file's data only when something asks for it.

The core library, server, and CLI are **all written in Rust**, with official SDKs for JavaScript, Python, C#, and Go. Everything routes through the same interface, so the CLI is not a special, privileged way of using Lore.

Any tool built using the same interface can do everything the CLI does.

## Get started quickly

The project has not reached a stable release yet, with [the most recent release](https://github.com/EpicGames/lore/releases?ref=itsfoss.com) being 0.8.3, and Epic Games is warning that interfaces and storage formats could fluctuate from release to release.

You do not need to have Rust installed or set up a container to try it out. One install script does the whole process of grabbing the CLI and server binary, dropping them into your PATH, and spinning up a server on your machine.

The [official guide](https://epicgames.github.io/lore/tutorials/quickstart/?ref=itsfoss.com) lists the script to get it configured on Linux:

```
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/EpicGames/lore/main/scripts/install.sh | bash -s -- --demo
```

Beyond that, if you have any questions or are just looking to have a conversation surrounding it, there's a [Discord](https://discord.gg/E4SFJKRPbg?ref=itsfoss.com) server you can join that has people from the development team and the Lore community.