Melcurial - version control for non-engineers Posted on August 25, 2025 by Dave Fowler
I just created and launched
melcurial, a simplified abstraction of git for non-engineers.
Especially today, many non-engineers have a lot of things to contribute to codebases - design tweaks, blog and image updates for static sites, dataset changes, vibe coded tweaks, etc. melcurial aims to make those non-engineers much more able to contribute to these collaborative codebases.
The first version of mel started over 10 years ago at Chartio when my Head of Communications, Mel, needed to update our static site without learning a full developer workflow.
At the time we were on Mercurial, so I built a tool and set of shortcuts that reduced the process to a few friendly commands—and named it Melcurial (code‑name mel) after its primary user!
Recently I was working with two Product Manger friends who're learning to vibe code apps. Trying to teach them the nuances of github was a lot... so instead I recreated mel which made all of our lives a lot easier.
I looked back in my archives and found this photo of Mel celebrating her newfound version control powers!
What mel is
- Simple: a tiny set of commands
- Safe: confirmations and helpful prompts
- Organized: proper Git workflow under the hood
- Friendly: clear, non‑technical language
Who it’s for
Primarily mel is for non-engineers who want to contribute to a codebase. But in advanced mode it's also a great tool for engineers who want a smooth, quick workflow.
- Content editors and communicators
- Product Managers learning to contribute
- Designers making small UI/content tweaks
- Engineers who want a smooth, quick workflow
Docs
No good abstraction library comes undocumented... so I build out a full set of docs with full explanation of each command.