What is Alepha?

The name "Alepha" is a play on the mathematical concept of Aleph numbers (א), which represent infinite sets. With a feminine "a" suffix, it embodies the idea of creating boundless possibilities from a strong, elegant foundation.

At its core, Alepha is an opinionated, class-based framework for building full-stack TypeScript applications with React, Drizzle, and Vite. Alepha is designed from the ground up to provide a cohesive development experience, where conventions guide you and type safety protects you, from your database schema all the way to your frontend components.

A Modern, Integrated Foundation

Alepha is not a wrapper around existing libraries like Express or Fastify. Started in 2024, it is a fresh take on modern backend development. The framework builds for the future of the platform, targeting Node.js 22+ to leverage the latest features of the runtime.

An Opinionated Stack, Not a Box of Parts

While much of Alepha is a fresh rewrite, it also stands on the shoulders of giants. The framework's philosophy is to build where unique value can be added and integrate where it makes sense. To provide a seamless, end-to-end typed experience, Alepha is built upon a mandatory foundation of three exceptional tools:

1. React for UIs: The @alepha/react package provides a powerful routing and data-fetching system inspired by the golden era of Next.js—before Server Components. It offers a straightforward and effective model for building Server-Side Rendered (SSR) applications.

2. Drizzle ORM for Databases: Alepha uses Drizzle as its foundation for database interaction. You can use Drizzle's powerful query builder directly, or leverage Alepha's type-safe repository layer ($repository), which provides a streamlined and integrated experience for PostgreSQL and SQLite.

3. Vite for Building: Alepha applications are built and bundled using Vite. The @alepha/vite plugin provides a seamless build process for both your server and client code, with out-of-the-box support for deploying to Docker or Serverless.

These three technologies are not optional pillars; they are the core of the Alepha experience.

Platform Support

Alepha is optimized for Node.js but also runs seamlessly on Bun. While a native Bun integration is planned for the future, the current version performs robustly in the Bun runtime.

Many packages, especially @alepha/react, are designed for both server and browser environments, making it a true full-stack solution.