Show HN: Titan – JavaScript-first framework that compiles into a Rust server

> you write routes and logic in JavaScript, and the CLI compiles everything into a single Rust + Axum binary using the Boa JS engine

It's not clear to me how this would have better performance than plain Node.js, which is a C++ binary using the V8 JS engine.

It looks like you're handling routing in Rust, but this seems unlikely to move the needle measurably. In fact, it could be hurting you - you're basically betting that the rust program (route request + invoke JS interpreter + marshal data) is faster than the much simpler JavaScript program (route request). That doesn't seem likely.

As the author of a JS-to-OCaml compiler [1], I must admit that Poe’s Law applies here [2]:

“Without a clear indicator of the author’s intent, any parodic or sarcastic expression of extreme views can be mistaken by some readers for a sincere expression of those views.”

[1] https://dev.to/denyspotapov/porting-is-odd-npm-to-ocaml-usin...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law

TBH, the idea seems way outdated for the current state of software engineering. The Rust compiler provides a massive benefit for AI Coding because it literally catches all the failure cases, so all AI have to do is implement the logical parts, which is usually a no-brainer for something like a Claude Code or Codex.

For example, the https://github.com/SaynaAI/sayna has been mostly Claude Code + me reviewing the stuff + some small manual touches if needed, but for the most part, I have found that Claude Code writes way more stable Rust code than JS.

It would be easier and safer to give the JS code to a translator and have it translate it into Rust, and then continue AI Dev with Rust, than to invest time in an automated compiler from JS to Rust. IMHO!

> Would love feedback on the … DX

Is it that the two extra characters 'an' in 'titan' are so difficult to type for the CLI, or is it just for the giggles when you 'dev'?

I guess as long as you have basically no business logic, perhaps it makes sense to orchestrate route handling in Rust?

But Boa is very very slow compared to JIT compiled JavaScript. As soon as your business logic starts trying to stand up and walk I think you’ll start hitting request latency sadness.

Any benchmarking ? Because this fundamentally sounds like replacing node (V8) with another javascript engine. Which I'm not sure is going to be much of a gain, at which point why use an entire different toolchain than the rest of the world ?

While the idea is somewhat new for today's JS. And I see some benefits for this to make single-purpose servers compiled into tiny binaries. I believe it would take some time to make this popular. You should to find the niche where it's required right now. And also I would spend more time working on marketing: explainer, documentation, landing page. For example now the readme looks too ai-written

What's about code and DX: it's not a good practice to export anything using globals, this is what JS world refused to do long ago. It turns your code into a hardly debuggable mess quickly

> Rust-level performance > JS → Rust compilation pipeline

There's a JS to Rust transpiler? How? If this is true, this is the most impressive part. The web server/framework almost irrelevant.

The AI generated documentation is very confusing.

    const body = JSON.stringify({
        model: "gpt-4.1-mini",
        messages: [{ role: "user", content: "hii" }]
    });

    const r = t.fetch("https://api.openai.com/v1/chat/completions", {
        method: "POST",
        headers: {
            "Content-Type": "application/json",
            "Authorization": `Bearer ${API_KEY}`
        },
        body
    });

    const json = JSON.parse(r.body);

.. no async? i wonder how they are doing this & how they plan on more js interop

Wow. Just sucks that Rust proponents apparently tried to assassinate through sw*tting a Rust critic, Rene Rebe.

Murderous, wretched and evil Rust proponents will censor, downplay and distract from this post. These murderous Rust proponents already know that they deserve worse than hell.

The rust fanboys will eat this alive! Props for having the courage to do this tho.

One of your merits listed is "Pure JavaScript developer experience". I don't think most devs, even JS devs would consider this a merit lol. Cool project either way.

Tit? Really? Just two more letters.

Second, how does concurrency (like promises) translate to rust ?