Ash Framework
Hacker ApprovedRanked 2 of 3 application frameworks by recommenders
Recommended for well-organized, consistent Elixir code and data modeling that suits AI coding tools; critics say it is hard to get working.
Recommended for well-organized, consistent Elixir code and data modeling that suits AI coding tools; critics say it is hard to get working.
22 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 19
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 86%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 19 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 6.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Consistent, well-structured codebases
“the structural guardrails from Ash seems to have led to very consistent, organized and readable code”
Comment from 14 Jul 2026 in “Punch Yourself in the Face with Reality” “creates a very well defined and verifiable structure for every part of the codebase”
Comment from 19 Oct 2026 in “Personal software factories are a waste of time” “the consistent structure of using Ash with it for data, API and CLI”
Comment from 25 Sep 2026 in “Rails World 2026 Opening Keynote [video]” Works well with AI coding
“AI works very well with it because it can understand the domain you are working in”
Comment from 4 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Craftplan – I built my wife a production management tool for her bakery” “I'm mostly vibe-coding a system of comparable complexity in Elixir/Ash right now”
Comment from 8 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Craftplan – Elixir-based micro-ERP for small-scale manufacturers” Data modeling and business logic
“I also like using Ash for data modeling and business logic expression.”
Comment from 14 Jun 2026 in “Phoenix LiveView 1.2 Released” “build a full open source general purpose ERP in Elixir based on Ash”
Comment from 4 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Craftplan – I built my wife a production management tool for her bakery” “the consistent structure of using Ash with it for data, API and CLI”
Comment from 25 Sep 2026 in “Rails World 2026 Opening Keynote [video]” Strong with Elixir and LiveView
“I’ve had great experience with Elixir and the new compiler combined with Ash.”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “Grok Build Is OSS” “Elixir + Ash + LiveView is the best productive combination”
Comment from 4 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Craftplan – I built my wife a production management tool for her bakery”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Hard to get working
“it was already an insane experience getting imgui, winit and ash to play nice”
Comment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Zed editor switching graphics lib from blade to wgpu” “I tried to use ash to build a simple app and couldn't get it to work”
Comment from 4 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Craftplan – I built my wife a production management tool for her bakery”
Other application frameworks people recommend
The two most recommended other application frameworks, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 3 application frameworks, rankedWhat people said
25 of the 28 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“creates a very well defined and verifiable structure for every part of the codebase”
“the consistent structure of using Ash with it for data, API and CLI”
“I’ve had great experience with Elixir and the new compiler combined with Ash.”
“the structural guardrails from Ash seems to have led to very consistent, organized and readable code”
“It also makes it super easy to drop down to raw sql, while maintaining that struct interface at the top.”
“I also like using Ash for data modeling and business logic expression.”
“You can use Ash, which pretty much entirely solves architectural considerations for many types of backends”
“readers can have real conversations with her directly inside the chapters, in character, with full story context”
“The two approaches seem complementary: Ash controls the perimeter, encrypted vaults protect the values themselves.”
“Ash is built on the Endpoint Security and Network Extension APIs”
“No Source - This is a security tool that can't be audited.”
“recklessly granting proxies/AI agents excessive permissions”
“the cold resume at 32ms is the number that matters most here”
“I don't think Elixir's Ash is too far off”
“ash isn't just an FFI wrapper; it does quite a bit of RAII-esque state and function pointer management that is generally required for Vulkan.”
“it was already an insane experience getting imgui, winit and ash to play nice”
“Ash is still stuck at Vulkan 1.3, when Vulkan 1.4 launched in December of 2024.”
“hasn't cut a release for nearly two years”
“I'm mostly vibe-coding a system of comparable complexity in Elixir/Ash right now”
“AI works very well with it because it can understand the domain you are working in”
“Elixir + Ash + LiveView is the best productive combination”
“I tried to use ash to build a simple app and couldn't get it to work”
“build a full open source general purpose ERP in Elixir based on Ash”
“is better suited for use as a non-interactive shell”
“we actually found that quite a lot of people who talk to Ash actually develop new relationships with people they can count on”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.