The REPL 55: Instant: a modern Firebase in Clojure, with Stepan Parunashvili
Oct 18, 2024
Stepan Parunashvili, creator of InstantDB and an experienced engineer, dives deep into building modern applications. He breaks down the unique features of Instant, a Clojure-based real-time database, and discusses its architecture's comparison to tools like Firebase. The conversation touches on innovative data management solutions, including the new query language InstaQL, and the collaboration of TypeScript with Clojure in frontend development. Stepan also shares insights from his startup experience, emphasizing community and open-source contributions.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Treat App Complexity As Database Problems
- Instant compresses common frontend/backend complexity by treating many problems as database problems.
- Providing queries, transactions and auth in the client SDK boosts developer productivity dramatically.
Use Instant To Ship Faster
- Start new apps on Instant to avoid boilerplate like endpoints, auth and optimistic updates.
- Swap useState for useQuery and persist behavior with minimal infra setup.
Three-Layer Sync Architecture
- Instant's architecture has a client-side DB, a sync engine and a multi-tenant backend database.
- The sync engine subscribes to a write-ahead log and invalidates queries based on changed topics.