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Ash Framework

Hacker Approved

Ranked 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%
Each figure is one person. RecommendsCriticizes

Recommended in 10 of 13 months

  1. November 2025: recommended
  2. December 2025: not recommended
  3. January 2026: recommended
  4. February 2026: recommended
  5. March 2026: recommended
  6. April 2026: recommended
  7. May 2026: recommended
  8. June 2026: recommended
  9. July 2026: recommended
  10. August 2026: not recommended
  11. September 2026: recommended
  12. October 2026: recommended
  13. 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.

Ash Framework compared with 2 alternatives
ProductRecommendCriticizeApprovalMonthsOwnedBadge
Cocoa23777%9—Approved
Ash FrameworkThis page19386%10—Approved
GNUstep8562%6——
See all 3 application frameworks, ranked

What 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”

RecommendsComment 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”

RecommendsComment from 25 Sep 2026 in “Rails World 2026 Opening Keynote [video]”

“I’ve had great experience with Elixir and the new compiler combined with Ash.”

RecommendsComment from 16 Jul 2026 in “Grok Build Is OSS”

“the structural guardrails from Ash seems to have led to very consistent, organized and readable code”

RecommendsComment from 14 Jul 2026 in “Punch Yourself in the Face with Reality”

“It also makes it super easy to drop down to raw sql, while maintaining that struct interface at the top.”

RecommendsComment from 5 Jul 2026 in “What ORMs have taught me: just learn SQL (2014)”

“I also like using Ash for data modeling and business logic expression.”

RecommendsComment from 14 Jun 2026 in “Phoenix LiveView 1.2 Released”

“You can use Ash, which pretty much entirely solves architectural considerations for many types of backends”

RecommendsComment from 26 May 2026 in “Use Boring Languages with LLMs”

“readers can have real conversations with her directly inside the chapters, in character, with full story context”

RecommendsComment from 22 Apr 2026 on Hacker News

“The two approaches seem complementary: Ash controls the perimeter, encrypted vaults protect the values themselves.”

RecommendsComment from 11 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Ash, an Agent Sandbox for Mac”

“Ash is built on the Endpoint Security and Network Extension APIs”

RecommendsComment from 11 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Ash, an Agent Sandbox for Mac”

“No Source - This is a security tool that can't be audited.”

CriticizesComment from 11 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Ash, an Agent Sandbox for Mac”

“recklessly granting proxies/AI agents excessive permissions”

RecommendsComment from 11 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Ash, an Agent Sandbox for Mac”

“the cold resume at 32ms is the number that matters most here”

RecommendsComment from 7 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Ash – OSS Infra for Running Claude Agent SDK”

“I don't think Elixir's Ash is too far off”

RecommendsComment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Back end where you just define schema, access policy, and functions”

“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.”

RecommendsComment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Zed editor switching graphics lib from blade to wgpu”

“it was already an insane experience getting imgui, winit and ash to play nice”

MixedComment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Zed editor switching graphics lib from blade to wgpu”

“Ash is still stuck at Vulkan 1.3, when Vulkan 1.4 launched in December of 2024.”

CriticizesComment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Zed editor switching graphics lib from blade to wgpu”

“hasn't cut a release for nearly two years”

CriticizesComment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Zed editor switching graphics lib from blade to wgpu”

“I'm mostly vibe-coding a system of comparable complexity in Elixir/Ash right now”

RecommendsComment from 8 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Craftplan – Elixir-based micro-ERP for small-scale manufacturers”

“AI works very well with it because it can understand the domain you are working in”

RecommendsComment from 4 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Craftplan – I built my wife a production management tool for her bakery”

“Elixir + Ash + LiveView is the best productive combination”

RecommendsComment from 4 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Craftplan – I built my wife a production management tool for her bakery”

“I tried to use ash to build a simple app and couldn't get it to work”

CriticizesComment from 4 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Craftplan – I built my wife a production management tool for her bakery”

“build a full open source general purpose ERP in Elixir based on Ash”

RecommendsComment from 4 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Craftplan – I built my wife a production management tool for her bakery”

“is better suited for use as a non-interactive shell”

RecommendsComment from 18 Jan 2026 in “Command-line Tools can be 235x Faster than your Hadoop Cluster (2014)”

“we actually found that quite a lot of people who talk to Ash actually develop new relationships with people they can count on”

RecommendsComment from 12 Nov 2025 in “Research on AI Mental Health”

Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.