frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

Open in hackernews

Ask HN: Would You Use a Declarative Back End (APIs, DB, Auth, Sync)?

3•Imazadi•1d ago
I'm exploring the idea of building a developer tool/platform that allows you to define an entire backend (database, APIs, authentication, security rules, sync, etc.) purely through YAML files.

It’s somewhat inspired by Hasura DDN, where you can declaratively design your GraphQL layer. My vision goes further: you'd define everything in a backend/ folder using YAML — including:

Database schema: tables, relationships, constraints

Access/security rules

API channels: exposed through HTTP or MQTT

Functions: written in Dart (AoT compiled) or JavaScript

Auth setup: API keys, OAuth, JWT, etc.

Sync logic: so mobile apps can go offline and sync later

CI/CD friendly: entire backend versioned and deployed as code

This means a complete backend (DB + APIs + logic) could be spun up and deployed from source — no clicking around dashboards, just config and code.

I'm especially interested in making it work well for mobile developers (e.g. Flutter devs) who need offline-first backends or sync capabilities out of the box.

I’d love your thoughts:

Would this replace anything you’re using today?

What are the must-have features for you?

Any dealbreakers?

Too much abstraction or just right?

Thanks in advance — I'm trying to gauge if there's real demand here before going deeper. Honest feedback (especially critical) is welcome.

Comments

revskill•1d ago
It is not hard but cumberstone to build such system.
rubicon33•15h ago
No, I definitely wouldn't.
fogzen•8h ago
I think this area is still under explored. I built one of my startups using only PostgREST as the backend, and it was honestly amazing, despite the limitations. The main technical challenge was migrations and interfacing with external systems.

The bigger challenge is selling this. Only experienced programmers understand the value, but are seldom in positions of power, or are wary of locking themselves in. This only works for greenfield development. I was able to take this approach because I had been CTO developing an MVP, and even then it was a hard sell to my co-founder. Most people just can't truly grok the value because they aren't experienced programmers.

A Vector-Based Method for Procedural Ambigram Generation [pdf]

https://paperclipmaximizer.ai/fambigen.pdf
1•ycombiredd•1m ago•1 comments

HP ZBook Ultra G1a: A Powerful Mobile Workstation Powered by AMD's Ryzen AI Max

https://www.phoronix.com/review/hp-zbook-ultra-g1a#google_vignette
1•rbanffy•2m ago•0 comments

no, the moon (a love letter to lua)

https://if-not-nil.github.io/no-the-moon/
1•qwool•3m ago•0 comments

Disney and Universal sue AI image creator Midjourney

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jun/11/disney-universal-ai-lawsuit
1•nreece•3m ago•0 comments

We've unlocked a holy grail in clean energy. It's only the beginning

https://www.vox.com/climate/408381/energy-transition-renewables-grid-scale-energy-storage-giant-batteries
1•doener•6m ago•0 comments

Boeing 787 Jet Bound for London Crashes in India

https://www.wsj.com/world/india/air-india-plane-carrying-242-crashes-in-western-india-de885d61
1•fortran77•8m ago•0 comments

An Interview with "Apple in China" Author Patrick McGee

https://stratechery.com/2025/an-interview-with-apple-in-china-author-patrick-mcgee/
1•feross•9m ago•0 comments

Fostering critical thinking to combat misinformation

https://voxdev.org/topic/institutions-political-economy/fostering-critical-thinking-combat-misinformation
1•econlmics•9m ago•0 comments

Peeling the Covers Off Germany's Exascale "Jupiter" Supercomputer

https://www.nextplatform.com/2025/06/11/peeling-the-covers-off-germanys-exascale-jupiter-supercomputer/
2•rbanffy•18m ago•1 comments

Ask HN: Minecraft's UI element style (vs. modern flat glass interfac)

1•xeonmc•20m ago•0 comments

Air India flight with 242 on board crashes, flight ops suspended at airport

https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/ahmedabad/ahmedabad-plane-crash-live-updates-10062373/
4•Ozarkian•21m ago•0 comments

AI Healthspan Prediction: Leading the Future with Avio Health's Agentic AI

1•emmanol•22m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: When is it too little and when too much when you do market research?

1•pinter69•23m ago•0 comments

Maximizing Battery Storage Profits via High-Frequency Intraday Trading

https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.06932
2•doener•26m ago•0 comments

Pentagon Has Been Pushing Americans to Believe in UFOs for Decades, New Report

https://gizmodo.com/pentagon-has-been-pushing-americans-to-believe-in-ufos-for-decades-new-report-finds-2000614615
9•pseudolus•27m ago•0 comments

T Cells Take Up Residence in the Healthy Brain via a Gut-Fat-Brain Axis

https://medicine.yale.edu/news-article/t-cells-take-up-residence-in-the-healthy-brain-via-a-gut-fat-brain-axis/
1•lentoutcry•27m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Turn your YT videos into AI-tutor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41RnN9dhnJI
3•hakimihsan•28m ago•0 comments

Opera Neon: the first AI agentic browser

https://press.opera.com/2025/05/28/opera-neon-the-first-ai-agentic-browser/
1•andruby•30m ago•0 comments

Humanity has captured our first look at the Sun's South Pole

https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/12/solar_orbiter_south_solar_pole_pics/
2•pseudolus•30m ago•0 comments

A California dairy tried to capture its methane, and it worked

https://phys.org/news/2025-06-california-dairy-capture-methane.html
2•pseudolus•31m ago•0 comments

IBM now describing its first error-resistant quantum compute system

https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/06/ibm-is-now-detailing-what-its-first-quantum-compute-system-will-look-like/
2•donatzsky•33m ago•0 comments

Air India B788 at Ahmedabad on Jun 12th 2025, lost height shortly after takeoff

https://www.aeroinside.com/20800/india-b788-at-ahmedabad-on-jun-12th-2025-lost-height-shortly-after-takeoff
6•chinathrow•33m ago•0 comments

Dependency chain error breaks NPM packages

https://github.com/isaacs/minimatch/issues/257
1•h1fra•34m ago•0 comments

Disney, Universal Launch AI Legal Battle, Sue Midjourney over Copyright Claims

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/disney-universal-midjourney-1236262563/
1•latexr•35m ago•0 comments

Building Cursor

https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/cursor
1•dvrp•35m ago•0 comments

London-bound plane carrying over 200 people crashes after take-off in India

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c8d1r3m8z92t
4•znq•37m ago•1 comments

Android 16: desktop experience with phone connected to display

https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2025/06/developer-preview-enhanced-android-desktop-experiences-connected-displays.html
2•cromka•38m ago•2 comments

Air India 787 crashes on takeoff

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/plane-crashes-in-ahmedabads-meghani-area/articleshow/121798487.cms
8•United857•40m ago•0 comments

Air India flight to UK crashes in Ahmedabad in India shortly after takeoff

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/jun/12/air-india-flight-ai171-plane-crash-ahmedabad-india-latest-updates
22•testrun•45m ago•3 comments

Claude, Llama can now be used with highly sensitive data in AWS' gov cloud

https://fedscoop.com/claude-llama-ai-models-amazon-government-cloud/
1•panrobo•45m ago•0 comments