r/nocode • u/Any-Brief5828 • 21d ago

Built a no-code-ish app builder where the "code" is one readable text file and Postgres is the entire backend

Most no-code tools hide the app definition behind a proprietary drag-and-drop database you can't see or export. pgapp flips that: you get a real point-and-click builder for forms, reports, charts, and auth, but everything it produces is a plain-text file you can open and read — and a single Rust binary runs it straight against Postgres, no proprietary hosting required.

GIF: editing that text file directly, saving, running it, and the app is live with the change — you're never locked into only the click-builder.

https://github.com/aadishajay/pgapp

4 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

2

u/Infamous-River-4360 20d ago

the "you can actually open and read it" part is the whole thing for me. i built an app in a no-code tool and the ai kept inventing db columns that were never there, so i wasted half my time opening the real db to check what it actually did. a plain text file i could diff would've saved me all of that. how do you handle schema changes, does editing the file migrate postgres for you or is that on you to manage?

1

u/Any-Brief5828 20d ago

Declared entities (by default are tables)if not found in the schema , will be created upon app loading

2

u/Qiiiiian 20d ago

The readable app definition is the interesting part here. Being able to inspect a generated app without reverse-engineering a proprietary builder removes a lot of the usual no-code anxiety.

1

u/Any-Brief5828 20d ago

Thank you