Show HN: DBOSify – Drop-in Temporal replacement built on Postgres • Hacker News Board

I'm a little unclear on this. You say it's a replacement for Temporal, but the GitHub repo says it's a replacement for the temporal python client SDK?

Then in the description you say "This lets you run durable workflows, activities, signals, updates, retries, and recovery without needing any infrastructure except Postgres." but your diagram shows worker nodes outside of the Postgres server, so you do need infrastructure beyond the Postgres instance?

Re: Show HN: DBOSify – Drop-in Temporal replacement built on Postgres

#6

Post by hatefulheart » Sat, Jun 27, 2026, 2:36 AM UTC

KraftyOne wrote: post #2

Hi HN, I'm Peter, creator of DBOSify. Here to answer any questions you have!

You can add a dev dependency in your pyprojec.toml with uv, look it up.

Re: Show HN: DBOSify – Drop-in Temporal replacement built on Postgres

#7

Post by lmz » Sat, Jun 27, 2026, 2:46 AM UTC

unsnap_biceps wrote: post #5

I'm a little unclear on this. You say it's a replacement for Temporal, but the GitHub repo says it's a replacement for the temporal python client SDK? Then in the description you say "This lets you run durable workflows, activities, signals, updates, retries, and recovery without needing any infrastructure except Postgres." but your diagram shows worker nodes outside of the Postgres server, so you do need infrastruct…

I think "without needing any infrastructure" is in contrast to Temporal, which has its own server in front of the storage.

Re: Show HN: DBOSify – Drop-in Temporal replacement built on Postgres

#8

Post by lelandbatey » Sat, Jun 27, 2026, 4:22 AM UTC

unsnap_biceps wrote: post #5

I'm a little unclear on this. You say it's a replacement for Temporal, but the GitHub repo says it's a replacement for the temporal python client SDK? Then in the description you say "This lets you run durable workflows, activities, signals, updates, retries, and recovery without needing any infrastructure except Postgres." but your diagram shows worker nodes outside of the Postgres server, so you do need infrastruct…

I asked the DBOS folks about this before; the idea is that there is no "coordination node", only the workers and the DB. See DBOS folks previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186494

Re: Show HN: DBOSify – Drop-in Temporal replacement built on Postgres

#9

Post by raykyri » Sat, Jun 27, 2026, 4:44 AM UTC

KraftyOne wrote: post #2

Hi HN, I'm Peter, creator of DBOSify. Here to answer any questions you have!

Hi! Do you have an example that includes a full agent workflow?

Re: Show HN: DBOSify – Drop-in Temporal replacement built on Postgres

#10

Post by swyx » Sat, Jun 27, 2026, 5:47 AM UTC

unsnap_biceps wrote: post #5

I'm a little unclear on this. You say it's a replacement for Temporal, but the GitHub repo says it's a replacement for the temporal python client SDK? Then in the description you say "This lets you run durable workflows, activities, signals, updates, retries, and recovery without needing any infrastructure except Postgres." but your diagram shows worker nodes outside of the Postgres server, so you do need infrastruct…

(ex temporal employee) believe it or not this is SIMPLER than temporal's actual workers. what you're seeing is a "DBOSify worker" embedded in each application server, which is not the same thing as temporal's conception of workers (which are separate from the app server). i havent spent much time with dbosify but i'd say this is closer to a "second client" than a full worker... just a terminology issue