Two ideas that might help: Elixir releases are built in and easy to use. You don't have to write an app file directly for instance. I usually use ports for C

Two ideas that might help: Elixir releases are built in and easy to use. You don't have to write an app file directly for instance. I usually use ports for C interface (rather than NIFs). I have a little boilerplate C and Elixir that I recycle to do the ground work and then it's just your specific implementation detail.