~/nouns

nouns

a REST API that builds REST APIs.

you make API calls. nouns builds the backend. no migrations, no models, no deploys, no Python.

define a noun. enable some actions. start CRUD-ing. that's the entire workflow. your frontend can ship today.

try it now see an example self-host

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how it works

1. sign up. get a key.

# one customer = one developer account.
POST /customers/signup
{ "email": "you@example.com", "password": "..." }

# → token + your customer uuid (lives in your app's URLs).

2. make an app.

POST /apps
{ "slug": "todo" }

3. define a noun.

POST /apps/todo/nouns
{
  "name": "task",
  "fields": { "title": "string", "done": "bool", "priority": "int" },
  "enabled_actions": ["list", "create", "partial_update", "destroy"],
  "filterable_fields": ["done"]
}

4. that's it. you have a backend.

# your end-users sign up at:
POST /<your_uuid>/todo/auth/signup

# they CRUD their tasks at:
POST   /<your_uuid>/todo/task         # create
GET    /<your_uuid>/todo/task         # list (?done=false works)
PATCH  /<your_uuid>/todo/task/<id>    # update
DELETE /<your_uuid>/todo/task/<id>    # delete

go build the frontend. you're done back here.

---

what's in the box

• schema-validated CRUD on every noun you define
• per-app end-user accounts (email + password, JWT)
• record-level ownership (users see their own stuff by default)
• public_read toggle when you want everyone to see it
• per-action enable/disable (don't want DELETE? don't enable it)
• filterable fields you opt in to (no SQL injection-by-query-param)
• relations between nouns — declare a field as reference:<other-noun>, get inline expansion via ?expand=field, and protected deletes (no dangling references)
• multiple apps per account, fully isolated user pools
• a generic CRUD client UI, so you can poke at it without writing code
• an admin UI to manage apps and nouns from a browser instead of curl

---

what's not in the box (yet)

• file uploads
• full-text search, aggregations, computed fields
• hooks / webhooks / scheduled jobs
• BYO auth providers
• roles & groups
• many-to-many relations (use a join noun for now)

they show up when someone actually needs them.

---

get started

the easiest way: just sign up at the hosted admin and start defining nouns. your end-users CRUD their records at the CRUD client.

prefer to self-host?

git clone <repo> nouns
cd nouns/api
python3 -m venv .venv
.venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt
.venv/bin/python manage.py migrate
.venv/bin/python manage.py runserver 127.0.0.1:8766

then visit the CRUD client at localhost. full deploy walkthrough in DEPLOY.md.