Previously Phoenix did put things in the “app” directory and many complained that “Phoenix was leading people away from Elixir conventions” or that “building a Phoenix application should not be different than any other Elixir codebase”.

It is one of the discussions that could go in loops forever, especially as it is an easy topic to get sidetracked with. So my recommendation would be to stick with the current conventions. If you really want to change it, do it in your mix.exs.

Once you choose a directory, you can do whatever structure you want inside that directory. It doesn’t have to be only my_app and my_app_web, feel free to create directories for other needs. I personally go with similar approach to @LostKobrakai (my_app, my_app_lib, my_app_web, etc).

I don’t care if the folder is named lib or app. It could be named “stuff” honestly, but that would have more people dissatisfied. What I do care about is that there is a strong convention that is consistently used. When I pick up a project I can immediately find my way. The lib name is probably not perfect but it absolutely works well in my book.

If you plan on ever working with other people, I’d suggest against doing something like this. Code needs to ultimately follow a pattern so collaborators can have the lowest possible cognitive load when reading it, breaking a core convention like this because of a personal opinion is not worth it on the long run.