MAGA

Make the Web Great Again.

Note: "MAGA" here is a playful acronym for Aura's vision that the Web Platform stays the foundation — not a political slogan.

Yes, the acronym is deliberately provocative.

And yes, it's a joke.

The idea behind it isn't.

Less framework. More platform.

This repository is the home of that vision for Aura UI.

Three levels of the same idea

Layer	Name	Role
Vision	MAGA	Make the Web Great Again — keep the Web Platform central, not buried under frameworks
Architecture	Platform First	Decide in this order: platform first; add an abstraction only when the platform isn't enough
Discipline	MANA	Minimal. Aligned. Native. Additive. — how to judge an abstraction

MAGA is the vision.
Platform First is the architecture.
MANA is the discipline — and the part you can actually apply.

Platform First

Platform First is not "vanilla JavaScript."

It is not "no dependencies."

It is not "never use a framework."

It is an order of decisions.

The traditional model often looks like:

Framework
    ↓
Framework abstractions
    ↓
Application
    ↓
Browser

Platform First reverses the direction:

Web Platform
    ↓
Application

And when the platform isn't enough:

Web Platform
    ↓
Thin abstraction
    ↓
Application

The browser is not merely an implementation detail.

The platform is the default. The abstraction is the addition.

MANA

Platform First describes the architecture.

MANA describes how we make decisions inside that architecture.

MANA doesn't tell you whether to use an abstraction. It tells you how to judge one.

MANA is four questions:

Letter	Meaning	Ask
M	Minimal	How much abstraction do we actually need?
A	Aligned	What meaning does the abstraction preserve?
N	Native	What does the abstraction build on?
A	Additive	What happens when you remove the abstraction?

The burden of proof is on the abstraction.

In practice:

• Minimal — Does the browser already solve this?
• Aligned — Does the API preserve native semantics?
• Native — Is it built on browser primitives?
• Additive — What still works if we remove it?

Removal Test

If you remove the abstraction, what remains?

Prefer:

platform + capability

over:

platform replacement

Full checklist and examples: checklist.md

Platform First is not Platform Only

MANA is a decision-making discipline, not a purity test.

Not anti-framework ideology. Not "rewrite everything in vanilla JS."

Sometimes the platform is enough. Sometimes a library or framework is the right engineering decision. Use it.

The question is not:

"Can we avoid an abstraction?"

The question is:

"Does this abstraction add enough value to justify another model?"

Start here

Doc	What it is
essay.md	Full essay — canonical long-form argument
checklist.md	Short MANA checklist for APIs and libraries
Aura Router	First practical experiment

In Aura packages

Aura libraries should be judged by MANA:

• ordinary platform primitives stay recognizable;
• abstractions stay thin and intentional;
• capability is added without making the platform disappear.

That is the boundary the essay defines:

Add capability without making the platform disappear.

---

MAGA is the vision.
Platform First is the architecture.
MANA is the discipline.

Build on the Web. Don't rebuild it.