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instantdb
instant
TypeScript2024–2026
instantdb / instant

instant

Instant is the best backend for AI-coded apps. You get auth, permissions, storage, presence, and streams — everything you need to ship apps your users will love.

AI & Machine LearningSecurity & Privacy
Explore on GitHubRead Hacker News discussions
8Distinct people
37Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
10.6KGitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

Instant is the best backend for AI-coded apps. You get auth, permissions, storage, presence, and streams — everything you need to ship apps your users will love.

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use has been verified yet.

What people are saying

No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 10:01:16 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by month37 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2024-08-22 17:08:50 UTC to 2026-08-20 14:52:40 UTC.

051015202024-08-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2024-09-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 18 mentions; 1 submissions, 17 commentsAug 20242024-09-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2024-10-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2024-10-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2024-11-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2024-11-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2024-12-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2024-12-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-02-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 3 mentions; 0 submissions, 3 comments2025-02-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-03-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2025-03-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-04-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2025-04-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-05-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2025-05-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-06-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2025-06-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-07-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2025-07-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-08-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2025-08-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-09-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 commentsAug 20252025-09-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-10-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2025-10-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-11-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2025-11-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-12-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2025-12-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 1 submissions, 0 comments2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-02-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-02-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-03-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-03-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-04-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-04-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-05-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 5 mentions; 0 submissions, 5 comments2026-05-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-06-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2026-06-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-07-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-07-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-08-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-08-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-09-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 commentsAug 2026

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
Aug 20242024-08-01 00:00:00 UTC2024-09-01 00:00:00 UTC18117
Sep 20242024-09-01 00:00:00 UTC2024-10-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Oct 20242024-10-01 00:00:00 UTC2024-11-01 00:00:00 UTC101
Nov 20242024-11-01 00:00:00 UTC2024-12-01 00:00:00 UTC101
Dec 20242024-12-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Jan 20252025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-02-01 00:00:00 UTC303
Feb 20252025-02-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-03-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Mar 20252025-03-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-04-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Apr 20252025-04-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-05-01 00:00:00 UTC000
May 20252025-05-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-06-01 00:00:00 UTC101
Jun 20252025-06-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-07-01 00:00:00 UTC101
Jul 20252025-07-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-08-01 00:00:00 UTC101
Aug 20252025-08-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-09-01 00:00:00 UTC101
Sep 20252025-09-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-10-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Oct 20252025-10-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-11-01 00:00:00 UTC101
Nov 20252025-11-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-12-01 00:00:00 UTC101
Dec 20252025-12-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC110
Jan 20262026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-02-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Feb 20262026-02-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-03-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Mar 20262026-03-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-04-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Apr 20262026-04-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-05-01 00:00:00 UTC505
May 20262026-05-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-06-01 00:00:00 UTC101
Jun 20262026-06-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-07-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Jul 20262026-07-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-08-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Aug 20262026-08-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-09-01 00:00:00 UTC101

What Hacker News says

18 sources
samstave·Aug 29, 2024
I like your thing. I have been forcing my bot to give me Mermaid diagrams, swim diagrams, markup tables of schemas, code, logic etc... I like where you guys are going, but what I think would be really fun - would be a Node Based diagram logic, where the boxes that you show in the diagram are Code-geometry-Nodes - and could be connected with code blocks as such. Watch @HarryBlends videos on Geometry Nodes in Blender for Inspiration: https://www.youtube.com/@harryblends https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-4oCHe-hDE These are the best graphic/node based visuals for describing structured relationships in maths I've ever seen. To give you some CyberPunk FutureVision of what your outpus could be like -- if it turned all the code nodes into atomic code legos and rather than drawing the diagram from the code - I can use the diagram to create the co
Read the rest
de. -- WRT "...some code goes to anthropic..." while answering another, seems like you guys would do well to know these guys: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41381498 https://www.usevelvet.com/ As well as these guys: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41322281 https://github.com/instantdb/instant
In Launch HN: CodeViz (YC S24) – Visual maps of your codebase in VS Code
stopachka·Aug 23, 2024
We are working on a Postgres adapter. If you have an existing app and would be interested in using Instant with it, please send us a note: founders@instantdb.com The way the Postgres adapter would work: You give us your database url [1], and Instant handles the real-time sync. [2] For roll-out, we'll test it ourselves first and then take on beta users. [1] Encrypted at rest: https://github.com/instantdb/instant/blob/main/server/src/in... [2] Here's a fun 'pg introspection' function: https://github.com/instantdb/instant/blob/main/server/src/in... . You can take sneak peak through codebase by searching 'byop'.
In Show HN: InstantDB – A Modern Firebase
stopachka·Aug 23, 2024
> standard PostgreSQL tables We're working on a feature where you bring an existing Postgres database, and use Instant as the sync layer [1]. If you have an app like this and would be interested in beta testing, let us know: founders@instantdb.com [1] For a peak, you can search for 'byop' in the codebase. Here's a fun introspection query, which definitely awed me about Postgres' powers: https://github.com/instantdb/instant/blob/main/server/src/in...
In Show HN: InstantDB – A Modern Firebase
nezaj·Aug 23, 2024
We're currently working on a Postgres adapter. If you have an existing app and would be interested in using Instant with it, please send us a note: founders@instantdb.com The way the Postgres adapter would work: You give us your database url [1], and Instant handles the real-time sync. [2] For roll-out, we'll test it ourselves first and then take on beta users. [1] Encrypted at rest: https://github.com/instantdb/instant/blob/main/server/src/in... [2] Here's a fun 'pg introspection' function: https://github.com/instantdb/instant/blob/main/server/src/in... . You can take sneak peak through codebase by searching 'byop'.
In Show HN: InstantDB – A Modern Firebase
IanCal·Aug 23, 2024
That sounds excellent. Count is the one I'm mostly after (x total attempts, y successes, z people have done this, etc). Right now it's at worst just inefficient and my scale is very low so that's just not a problem right now. Knowing there's both an escape hatch and that these things are on the plan means I don't feel like I'm setting myself up for issues later. Btw I guess you created a new repo for the public release, so https://github.com/instantdb/instant/blob/main/server/src/in... is the link for others. Great to see the open source release, congrats! : )
In Show HN: InstantDB – A Modern Firebase
stopachka·Aug 22, 2024
> Is the datalog engine exposed? Is there any way to cache parsed queries? We don't currently expose the datalog engine. You _technically_ could use it, but that part of the query system changes much more quickly. Queries results are also cached by default on the client. > Other datalog engines support recursive queries, which makes my life so much easier. Can I do that now with this? There's no shorthand for recursive queries yet, but it's on the roadmap. Today if you had a data model like 'blocks have child blocks', you wanted to get 3 levels deep, you could write: ``` useQuery({ blocks: { child: { child: {} } } }); ``` > Also, why the same name as the (Lutris) Enhydra java database? When we first thought of the idea for this project, our 'codename' was Instant. We didn't actually think we could get `instantdb.com` as a real domain n
Read the rest
ame. But, after some sleuthing, we found that the email server for instantdb.com went to a gentleman in New Zealand. Seems like he nabbed it after Lutris shut down. We were about to buy the domain after. > Given that it's implemented clojure and some other datalog engines are in clojure, can you say anything about antecedents? Certainly. Datomic has had a huge influence on us. I first used it at a startup in 2014 (wit.ai) and enjoyed it. Datalog and triples were critical for shipping Instant. The datalog syntax was simple enough that we could write a small query engine for the client. Triples were flexible enough to let us support relations. We wrote a bit about how helpful this was in this essay: https://www.instantdb.com/essays/next_firebase#another-appro... We studied just about all the codebases you mentioned as we built Instant. Fun fact, datascript actually supports our in-memory cache on the server: https://github.com/instantdb/instant/blob/main/server/src/in...
In Show HN: InstantDB – A Modern Firebase

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