Domphy
plain-object UI for tool apps, AI-correctable output
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I built a UI framework named Domphy because I could not learn React although I tried many times. I mean I could not understand React code which is hidden behind multiple layers, especially when some of them use React ecosystem libs. Maybe I am an architect turned developer, so I had no foundation of programming, or I expected something clear and clean.I just think that UI should be simple — HTML and JS are enough and just need some way to make it stateful instead of making it more complicated. My idea: just using JS objects to reflect HTML, and using functions for state. When I need to reuse a component I had one more concept — just make a partial (I call it a Patch) to add props to the main object (but native props still win). With a component-based approach you get deep nesting and exploding props, but with patches you don't. The example below: import { ElementNode, toState } from "@domphy/core"; import { tooltip } from "@domphy/ui"; const count = toState(0); const App = { div: [ { h3: (listener) => `Count: ${count.get(listener)}` }, { button: "Increment", onClick: () => count.set(count.get() + 1), $: [tooltip({ content: "Add one to the count" })], }, ], style: { display: "flex", gap: "8px", alignItems: "center" }, }; const root = new ElementNode(App); root.render(document.getElementById("app")!); Right now I am the only one using Domphy, for around a year, for creating SketchUp and Revit plugins in the AEC (Architecture, Engineering, Construction) industry. I created Domphy before AI code generation took off, to make code humans can read and understand clearly, but now AI can build UIs with React well, so sometimes I feel my work is meaningless. But I still use Domphy for my apps, because I feel more confident when I need to read and edit UI code when the AI gets stuck.
HN · launched Jun 19, 2026 · 11 upvotes (top 37%) · 1 view
Niche: software development frameworks · 154 launches, 2 in the last 7 days ▼ -89% · Explore this niche →
Category and tags
- Horizontal
- Dev tools
- Developer
- AI feature
- Hobby / open-source project
More like this: all 154 launches in software development frameworks →
Could you build this?
Yes A lightweight, plain-JavaScript/DOM manipulation UI library designed for simple tool apps can be built and iterated with an AI assistant in a couple of weeks.
Discussion
3 comments analyzed.
Competitors mentioned: Preact
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one : 384 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #179 of 385 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 227 days after the earliest competitor.
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- morph-ui · github · 2026-09-24 · 35 upvotes · similarity 0.48
- GrainJS · hn · 2025-12-26 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.48
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