Excellent question! The REST API part should be familiar to any Rails programmer.

The main difference is that back-end models, validation rules, triggers and views are coded in DB level via stored procedures written in Node.js-compatible modules, so it's enforced for both SQL- and HTTP-speaking clients.

As you pointed out, this is simply an instant JSON-over-REST API server on top of existing Pg databases, and is not intended to replace the need for traditional frameworks with server-side templating.