First screen, captured 5 days ago.

Launch HN: Respan (YC W24) – Open-source Rust AI gateway built around plugins

Launch HN post introducing Respan, an open-source Rust AI/LLM gateway with a small core where providers, protocols, and features are plugins.

What HN thinks

A Rust gateway launch where half the questions are about plugins and the other half are about whether anyone is human.

Compile-time plugins are a hassle
Critics argue that plugins requiring recompilation aren't really plugins, add CI burden, still carry crate supply-chain risk, and that a batteries-included product with a published Docker image is preferable.
Static Rust crates fit hot path
Others accept the maker's choice of compiled-in crates over WASM or dynamic loading, since plugins need database access and sit on the latency-critical path, while asking for prebuilt default builds.
Usage accounting is the hard part
Several commenters note that providers like Groq and Mistral report token usage inconsistently on streams, which undermines cross-provider cost attribution.

Consensus: No firm consensus; most agree the plugin boundary design is the key trade-off, with disagreement over whether compile-time plugins are worth losing a pull-and-run image.

Recommended in the comments

GoModel ↗ (tool): Recommended as a curated, batteries-included alternative without a plugin supply-chain risk.
Talos Image Factory (service): Suggested as a model for letting users pick plugin combinations and get a prebuilt binary.

Summarised by Claude from the comment thread 3 days ago.