Elixir is a declarative layer on top of SQLAlchemy. It is a fairly thin wrapper, which provides the ability to define model objects following the Active Record design pattern, and using a DSL syntax similar to that of the Ruby on Rails ActiveRecord system. Elixir does not intend to replace SQLAlchemy"s core features, but instead focuses on providing a simpler syntax for defining model objects when you do not need the full expressiveness of SQLAlchemy"s manual mapper definitions.