The End of Nue Framework

2 points

4 months ago

Hello HN. I want to share something I’ve been thinking about for a while now. I’m stepping away from Nue [1][2] development to work on something new. This wasn’t an easy call, but I think it’s the right one. Here’s why.

[1]: https://github.com/nuejs/nue [2]: https://nuejs.org

The ecosystem chose React and Tailwind

I spent two years making the case for a simpler, standards-based alternative. Better architecture, faster builds, less complexity. None of it mattered. The frontend world picked React and Tailwind, and that’s not changing. I could keep fighting that fight for another two years, but I’d rather spend that energy on something with real traction.

AI changed the game

Development is moving fast towards agentic workflows. Developers aren’t choosing tools the way they used to. They’re building with AI, shipping with AI, and the old arguments about framework architecture matter less every month. Even Tailwind is in trouble, as developers stop visiting their site. A new frontend framework has almost no chance in this environment. In fact the whole software industry is in trouble: developers don’t read docs anymore, they prompt. They don’t browse landing pages, they ask an agent to pick the best tool. Discovery, adoption, learning, all of it runs through AI now. The traditional playbook of building an open source community, writing great docs, and growing word of mouth is losing ground fast. The tools that win are the ones that fit into agentic workflows, not the ones with a carefully crafted documentation or README.

I found a better way to do what I love

The thing I care most about is design engineering, particularly CSS. That hasn’t changed. What changed is that I found a way to express that love in a form that’s more useful and more aligned with where developers are heading. Still minimal, still rooted in web standards, but now built around AI and what developers actually need today. I’m quite happy I found the perfect niche to express myself, as the space for new developer tools is shrinking rapidly. I’m still confident that CSS is the way forward, not the weird idioms that come with the React stack. Agents need a direct description of what things look like, not six layers of abstraction. And honestly, developers always needed that too.

Thank you,

— Tero