Just isn't really a replacement for make outside of the "simple command/task runner". Make is really a lot more powerful and has things like files system driven dependency handling.

Of course that is the whole point of just, to be simpler and more focused tool because a task runner is what people commonly want and the bloat/complexity of make is more of hindrance. This is clearly mentioned in the readme too

> just has a ton of useful features, and many improvements over make:

> • just is a command runner, not a build system, so it avoids much of make's complexity and idiosyncrasies. No need for .PHONY recipes!

I've been using 'just' for running a set of commands that I can't be bothered to remember.

It makes it easier to come back to a project after a few weeks, because you don't have to remember the N commands you were using to iterate/test, you only have to remember the 'just' invocation.

For some reason, it feels like a more natural fit for this than 'make'

Was going to mention this. I've recently started converting my Makefiles to justfiles, and it's just nicer. Even being able to inline scripts to clean up "loose" files is a big win.