IdeaWell

Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

Friendship ended with Deno, now Node is my best friend

Original Article

Hacker News Discussion

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

Three prevalent themes in the discussion

  1. Bun is praised for speed, low‑dependency setup, and easy migration from Node, despite controversy
  2. “I like Bun better than either Node or Deno.” — fastball
  3. “Bun is awesome… reduce deps down, sometimes to 0.” — shard972

  4. “Bun is much much more lighter than node or deno… it's objectively the better option in most cases.” — asutekku

  5. Deno offers attractive built‑in tooling and TypeScript integration, but struggles with fragmentation, compatibility issues (e.g., GET with body), and fading adoption

  6. “Deno is still an easy pick for me because of its built‑in test‑runner (deno test), linter (deno lint), and type checker (deno check).” — AgentME
  7. “I’m saddened by what seems to be their slow decline into obscurity. After the layoffs, there seems to be no roadmap, no comms, etc.” — isyouaint
  8. “Bun was promising, but as long as they don't fix their http GET implementation to accept the request body, its broken for me.” — elendilm

  9. “with Deno having its own APIs you'd effectively have to architect your application to be a 'Deno app' and it created two different ecosystems.” — chrysoprace

  10. Node remains the safe, stable, and broadly compatible fallback for many developers

  11. “Node is really good, and whatever thing that comes out outside of it will eventually be engulfed by it. Node is the safe bet :).” — moralestapia
  12. “The best way to make your app portable would be to use the provided Node APIs, cutting a lot of the value from Deno.” — chrysoprace
  13. “If you need bug-for-bug node compatibility you should be using node.” — dullcrisp
  14. “Your 'bug-for-bug' compatibility ensures Axios, Elasticsearch, many GraphQL implementations, etc. works. Hence I will use node …” — elendilm

🚀 Project Ideas

Generating project ideas…

Bun GET Body Compatibility Layer

Summary

  • Provides a Bun HTTP middleware that allows GET requests with bodies, preserving Node.js compatibility for tools like Elasticsearch, Axios, and GraphQL clients.
  • Core value: drop‑in opt‑in compatibility so existing infrastructure works without forking or rewriting requests.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Bun developers needing node‑compatible GET body handling
Core Feature Middleware that reads and forwards GET body to the request handler, configurable via Bun server options
Tech Stack Bun, TypeScript
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • Commenters like elendilm note that “Many real world tools like Elasticsearch's GET /_search with a JSON query DSL … breaks Axios” and that “a flag would suffice as that would ensure existing infrastructure tooling doesn't break while keeping the RFC spec folks happy.”
  • Enables Bun to be a true drop‑in replacement for Node in environments that rely on GET‑with‑body patterns, addressing a concrete friction point in the thread.

Deno LLM Toolkit

Summary

  • An extension for AI coding assistants (GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Continue) that adds Deno‑specific completions, permission prompts, and standard‑library snippets.
  • Core value: makes LLMs suggest Deno as readily as Node, boosting adoption and easing the sandbox‑first workflow.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Developers who rely on LLMs for code generation and want to use Deno
Core Feature LLM integration that injects Deno APIs, suggests Deno imports, and handles permission flags automatically
Tech Stack TypeScript, VS Code Extension API (or equivalent), LLM function‑calling interface, Deno runtime
Difficulty High
Monetization Revenue-ready: Subscription for premium features / enterprise licensing

Notes

  • The thread highlights that “LLMs don't reach for it and that’s a huge blow right now” (lukaan, doginasuit) and that Deno’s built‑in sandboxing is a desirable feature for agentic AI use.
  • By teaching LLMs Deno’s conventions and permissions, the toolkit directly tackles the visibility gap and could spark more Deno‑centric discussions on HN.

Cross‑Arch Deno/Binary Hub

Summary

  • A CDN‑backed service that provides pre‑built Deno (and Bun) binaries for a wide range of architectures (RISC‑V64, ARM64, etc.) with a simple one‑line install script.
  • Core value: removes the barrier of compiling from source, letting developers run Deno on exotic platforms instantly.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Developers on non‑x86 platforms, CI/CD pipelines, IoT/edge devices
Core Feature API and CLI to fetch verified, versioned Deno/Bun binaries per OS/arch, with integrity checks
Tech Stack Go (backend), GitHub Actions for automated builds, S3 or Cloudflare CDN for distribution
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Hobby (optional paid tier for private builds, SLA, or enterprise mirrors)

Notes

  • Muromec points out: “I use bun for the sole reason of it running perfectly on riscv64, while void zero is sleeping and not providing vite/tsdown/oxwhatver builds for it.” A binary hub would satisfy this need for Deno as well.
  • The service would also appeal to those wanting quick, reliable installs across diverse hardware, a recurring theme in the discussion about platform support.

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