Napkin
Infrastructure
serverless functions
SHOW HN2021
158points
70comments
#304of 2,533 in 2021
Top 13%of 2021 by points
How HN took it
CuriousMostly questions and neutral comments
17 positive, 26 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 5 critical, out of 49 comments about the project. Thread score +0.32.
Idea: 12 for, 0 againstExecution: 1 for, 5 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Fast way to build and deploy small backend functions without configuration
From 3 comments
Writing simple cloud functions right in the browser makes so much sense to me. I've used webtask.io before it was acquired and shut down. I had to switch to GCP cloud functions…
pyankoff on HNJust used this to make a quick slackbot for my team each time our hasura database is updated with a new user. I’m so impressed since I don’t think I could have ever learned or…
imehra on HNSeems like a good way to test and play around with APIs before coding it all out
forkLding on HN
Objections
Editing live code is risky; wants version control and code review
From 2 comments
Is it possible to store the code in git or fossil or any vcs? Is there room for code review before deploying? I'm all for whatever editor people find useful, and for easier…
dec0dedab0de on HNThis is awesome - using this in production for vdiff right now. Two things I'd love: 1) code review (just like GitHub) 2) team collaboration Awesome job y'all.
srekhi on HN
Auto-deploy on every keystroke is unwanted
From 2 comments
First impressions: Saving / Deploying after every keystroke is not really what I want. I rather have a Save button so I have time to fix any errors because sometimes it just…
guillegette on HNNo problem! I think an option to disable "auto-save" will just fix this for me. Because I always have to "wait" to press Run. I would rather wait after pressing Run.
guillegette on HN
Pandas import fails intermittently in demo
From 2 comments
Looks cool. Your demo on the homepage breaks if you try to `import pandas`
mritchie712 on HN`import pandas as pd` occasionally gives me: ``` Traceback (most recent call last): File "<string>", line 2, in <module> File "/napkin-entrypoint", line 104, in _import return…
dvt on HN
Requests
Team collaboration features
From 3 comments
Just used this to make a quick slackbot for my team each time our hasura database is updated with a new user. I’m so impressed since I don’t think I could have ever learned or…
imehra on HNThis is awesome - using this in production for vdiff right now. Two things I'd love: 1) code review (just like GitHub) 2) team collaboration Awesome job y'all.
srekhi on HNCan't wait to have it support team collaborations!!
AB_ on HN
Git/GitHub integration and code review
From 3 comments
Is it possible to store the code in git or fossil or any vcs? Is there room for code review before deploying? I'm all for whatever editor people find useful, and for easier…
dec0dedab0de on HNTotally valid concern. We plan to add Github integration soon which will also enable local development, code reviews, etc!
nsypteras on HNThis is awesome - using this in production for vdiff right now. Two things I'd love: 1) code review (just like GitHub) 2) team collaboration Awesome job y'all.
srekhi on HN
Local development support
From 2 comments
What options do developers have for things like unit testing and organization as code bases scale? Are we restricted to a single “file” per endpoint? Is local development an…
zolland on HNUnit testing - no unit testing yet but you can test out mock request data by using the Run Options tab in the Napkin editor. Organization - folders and workspaces coming soon,…
nsypteras on HN
TypeScript support
From 1 comment
App looks great! great work guys! Few questions: - Are you guys deploying a separate project in vercel for every user or using shared project among all? - What's the security…
sanmak on HN
Intellisense for installed packages
From 2 comments
App looks great! great work guys! Few questions: - Are you guys deploying a separate project in vercel for every user or using shared project among all? - What's the security…
sanmak on HNThanks for the questions! - The javascript and python runtimes are hosted on AWS. With the sandbox editor, resources are shared and code is executed in sandboxed VMs. For signed…
nsypteras on HN
Questions
Is it similar to Lambda with API Gateway?
From 1 comment
Sorry I’m dense, but what is this? Is this like an Amazon lambda function tied to an API Gateway?
rrosen326 on HN
How does it compare to Replit?
From 1 comment
Cool idea, well executed. How do you compare with repl.it?
crsr on HN
How are environment variables secured?
From 1 comment
App looks great! great work guys! Few questions: - Are you guys deploying a separate project in vercel for every user or using shared project among all? - What's the security…
sanmak on HN
Can it send binary responses like images?
From 2 comments
Looks useful, can it handle image and video manipulation npm packages? So I could crop and resize images on this service?
graylien on HNThanks for the comment! Yes you can use any NPM or Python package capable of doing that in Napkin. One limitation right now is that you cannot send back file data in responses,…
nsypteras on HN
Alternatives named
Vercel and Cloudflare Workers
From 1 comment
Looks similar to Vercel's functions and Cloudflare's Workers.
easrng on HN
AWS Lambda
From 1 comment
Sorry I’m dense, but what is this? Is this like an Amazon lambda function tied to an API Gateway?
rrosen326 on HN
Webtask
From 1 comment
Writing simple cloud functions right in the browser makes so much sense to me. I've used webtask.io before it was acquired and shut down. I had to switch to GCP cloud functions…
pyankoff on HN
Autocode
From 1 comment
https://autocode.com/ is another player in this space.
petercooper on HN
Cloud9 and Replit
From 2 comments
Is it similar to cloud9 ide?
debarshri on HNCool idea, well executed. How do you compare with repl.it?
crsr on HN