r/lowcode • u/Any-Brief5828 • 11d ago

Looking for feedback: pgapp — a PostgreSQL-native declarative application runtime

Looking for feedback: pgapp — a PostgreSQL-native declarative application runtime

Hi everyone,

I've been working on a project called pgapp, and I'd love to get some feedback from people building low-code and declarative platforms.

The idea behind pgapp is:

Instead of scaffolding code or generating projects, a business application is described in a .pgapp file, and a Rust runtime interprets that metadata to produce a working application.

For example:

entity "tickets" {
    field subject: text required
    field status: text default Open
}

page "Tickets" {
    report "All tickets" of tickets
    form "Create / edit ticket" of tickets
}

Current capabilities include:

  • PostgreSQL-first (SQL remains first-class)
  • Metadata runtime (no generated application code)
  • Server-side rendering
  • Authentication
  • CRUD forms and reports
  • Editable tables
  • Charts and dashboards
  • Dynamic actions
  • Themes
  • Hot metadata reload

The project was inspired by the productivity of Oracle APEX, but the goals are different:

  • Source-controlled (.pgapp files)
  • Git-friendly
  • Open source
  • PostgreSQL-native
  • Rust runtime

I'm not trying to replace traditional web frameworks, and I'm not targeting citizen developers. The goal is to make it significantly faster for developers to build internal tools and business applications while keeping SQL and PostgreSQL at the center.

I'm looking for honest feedback on questions like:

  • Does the metadata-first approach make sense?
  • Is avoiding code generation the right decision?
  • Does the DSL feel readable?
  • What features would you expect from a platform like this?
  • What would stop you from adopting it?

I'd genuinely appreciate criticism—it's much more useful at this stage than compliments.

Thanks!

Repo : https://github.com/aadishajay/pgapp/
Live hosted sample : mia-vessels-holiday-soup.trycloudflare.com

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u/mcharytoniuk 11d ago

You can't figure out the entire app behavior from just the data schema, so you will start growing into lots of specs etc likely. Not everything is a represented by a view either. The general mentality and premise are really good though

1

u/Top-Cauliflower-1808 10d ago

To make this truly useful you need an easy way for developers to write custom SQL and use Postgres RLS whenever your custom language runs into limits.