alt Hacker NewsShow HN: SnackBase – Open-source, GxP-compliant back end for Python teams
Hi HN, I’m the creator of SnackBase.
I built this because I work in Healthcare and Life Sciences domain and was tired of spending months building the same "compliant" infrastructure (Audit Logs, Row-Level Security, PII Masking, Auth) before writing any actual product code.
The Problem: Existing BaaS tools (Supabase, Appwrite) are amazing, but they are hard to validate for GxP (FDA regulations) and often force you into a JS/Go ecosystem. I wanted something native to the Python tools I already use.
The Solution: SnackBase is a self-hosted Python (FastAPI + SQLAlchemy) backend that includes:
Compliance Core: Immutable audit logs with blockchain-style hashing (prev_hash) for integrity.
Native Python Hooks: You can write business logic in pure Python (no webhooks or JS runtimes required).
Clean Architecture: Strict separation of layers. No business logic in the API routes.
The Stack:
Python 3.12 + FastAPI
SQLAlchemy 2.0 (Async)
React 19 (Admin UI)
Links:
Live Demo: https://demo.snackbase.dev
Repo: https://github.com/lalitgehani/snackbase
The demo resets every hour. I’d love feedback on the DSL implementation or the audit logging approach.
Comments
This is really cool. I probably won’t be using it directly, but will definitely study some architecture and implementation decisions.
> Compliance Core: Immutable audit logs with blockchain-style hashing (prev_hash) for integrity.
Had this in the back of my mind for a while now, too. In terms of prior art, Keybase had been doing something similar, but with Merkle trees.
> I’d love feedback on the DSL implementation
Could you tell in a bit more detail why you decided to go with your own DSL here? :)
I'm not sure the AGPL license is a good choice for this.
None of Django, Rails, Pocketbase or Supabase, which I think count as competitors, use AGPL.
Unless you can clarify that custom hooks and schemas are outside of the AGPL license, SnackBase may be a non-starter for commercial use.
Briefly checked out the repo and demo, looks neat!
Bookmarked to keep a tab on for future reference.
I noticed that SQLAlchemy (an ORM) is part of the stack, and that “Postgres support” is in the roadmap. For people coming from Supabase and the like which is Postgres-first, some upfront clarification around which database is already supported, would be helpful.