Haystack
Shares rank 24 of 28 agent frameworks by recommenders
Open-source framework and editor that people recommend for agents, RAG and navigating complex codebases. The most common criticism targets deepset's branding rather than the software itself.
Open-source framework and editor that people recommend for agents, RAG and navigating complex codebases. The most common criticism targets deepset's branding rather than the software itself.
11 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 6
- approval share
- 45%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 0.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not 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
Navigates and explains complex codebases
“it's still probably the best tool to navigate, visualize and understand complex codebases”
Comment from 19 May 2026 on Hacker News Team review of coding agent conversations
“A centralized review mechanism for a team or org that operates on coding agent conversations”
Comment from 19 May 2026 on Hacker News Confident about coding editor direction
“I am very confident that editor is the direction I want coding to go.”
Comment from 20 May 2026 on Hacker News Happy after switching to it
“I finally switched to haystack and I have been really happy.”
Comment from 25 Dec 2025 in “Ruby 4.0.0 Released”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Criticism of deepset's branding and SEO
“this is what happens when you dont know how SEO works and how to brand”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “Haystack: Open-Source AI Framework for Production Ready Agents, RAG” “deepset? more like deadseek.”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “Haystack: Open-Source AI Framework for Production Ready Agents, RAG”
Other agent frameworks people recommend
The four most recommended other agent 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.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Agent SDK | 36 | 25 | 59% | 11 | — | — |
| LangChain | 32 | 79 | 29% | 10 | 1 yr3 owners | — |
| Mastra | 32 | 3 | 91% | 10 | — | Approved |
| LangGraph | 31 | 23 | 57% | 12 | — | — |
| HaystackThis page | 5 | 6 | 45% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
9 of the 11 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“this is what happens when you dont know how SEO works and how to brand”
“completely unusable for extractive QA 2 years ago”
“For an EU based company, this stands out.”
“deepset? more like deadseek.”
“I am very confident that editor is the direction I want coding to go.”
“A centralized review mechanism for a team or org that operates on coding agent conversations”
“it's still probably the best tool to navigate, visualize and understand complex codebases”
“I finally switched to haystack and I have been really happy.”
“only using them for the chat completions or responses APIs and not doing anything fancy”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.