TAtaure·Feb 23, 2026Submission
Show HN: Nova – A Web Framework for Erlang, Elixir, and LFE on the Beam
Nova is an OTP-native web framework that works with Erlang, Elixir, and LFE. Since all three compile to the same BEAM bytecode, you can mix languages freely within one app.
Controllers are plain functions that take a request map and return tuples:
Erlang:
create(#{json := Params}) ->
CS = kura_changeset:cast(pet, #{}, Params, [name, species]),
CS1 = kura_changeset:validate_required(CS, [name, species]),
case my_repo:insert(CS1) of
{ok, Pet} -> {status, 201, #{}, #{data => Pet}};
{error, Changeset} -> {status, 422, #{}, #{errors => Changeset}}
end.
Elixir:
def create(%{json: params}) do
cs = :kura_changeset.cast(:pet, %{}, params, [:name, :species])
cs = :kura_changeset.validate_required(cs, [:name, :species])
case MyRepo.insert(cs) do
{:ok, pet} -> {:status, 201, %{}, %{data: pet}}
{:error, ch
Read the rest
angeset} -> {:status, 422, %{}, %{errors: changeset}}
end
end
Getting started with Elixir (Mix):
mix archive.install hex nova_new
mix nova.new my_app
iex -S mix
Getting started with Erlang (Rebar3):
rebar3 new nova my_app
cd my_app
rebar3 nova serve
The ecosystem includes Kura (an Ecto-inspired database layer with schemas, changesets, and migrations), WebSocket support, distributed pub/sub via OTP's pg module, OpenTelemetry
integration, code generators, and OpenAPI spec generation.
We recently published The Nova Book (https://novaframework.github.io/nova-book), a step-by-step guide to building a full app from scratch. There's also a pet_store example
(https://github.com/Taure/pet_store) showing a complete REST API with Nova + Kura.
On Hex: https://hex.pm/packages/nova (v0.13.7, Apache 2.0)