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Show HN: Prism.Tools – Free and privacy-focused developer utilities

378 pointsposted 5 days ago

(blgardner.github.io)

103 Comments

alsetmusic

5 days ago

There are lots of these, but this is the first that I've seen that focused on frontend dev a bit more. I've saved it to my list of tools for reference.

Here's another with a more local / backend / IT flavor: https://it-tools.tech

I have a couple more local apps with similar functions. Here's one that's cross platform[0]. This one appears to be Mac only[1].

Someone else mentioned not being able to remember these sites when needed. I recently started manually keeping track of web tools in html files inspired by a random repo[2] that fit well into a mode of category-abstraction that suited me. I don't recall how I landed there, but I liked the minimalism and adapted it to be a jumping-off point to a personal kbase that I made with another tool[3] some years ago. I have no design skills, so this (start-page) was just the right combo of minimalism and tasteful CSS for what I wanted. Works with markdown, which I also recently started using a lot more.

I ended up writing a lot more than I originally intended because I kept thinking of more links. They may be out of order because of non-linear editing and my having to rearrange them, so heads up. Also, it's early and I might just have made dumb mistakes.

0. https://devtoys.app 1. https://devutils.com 2. https://github.com/oinam/start 3. https://github.com/alanagoyal/docbase

Edit: Oh, looks like the it-tools link came from cruising the repo of start-page or vice-versa. Ha!

alexander2002

4 days ago

I created https://github.com/oreoro/prettydevtoys

It is identical to the main it tools repo but with better styling and ux

BLGardner

5 days ago

Thanks for the great feedback and I am very happy you decided to save it to your tool list!

elashri

5 days ago

There is also network-tooling of the same idea and works locally [1]

[1]https://github.com/Lissy93/networking-toolbox

hk1337

5 days ago

it-tools is one I use often and have setup locally.

I like that prism.tools seems to be 100% static, so it doesn't require node to run like it-tools but I would imagine there's probably some tasks it couldn't do.

BLGardner

5 days ago

Yes, there are definitely things that can’t be done in the fashion of Prism.Tools but there are soooo many that can!

BLGardner

5 days ago

Thanks for saving and sharing! If you use one tool I’ve reached my goal!

Lord_Zero

5 days ago

ASCII Art Text Generator seems broken

BLGardner

5 days ago

I will check into that, thanks! Can you elaborate a bit on what specifically it is or is not doing? Thanks

sphars

5 days ago

Not OP but the ascii art generator on your site is broken when selecting to generate from text. All the font style options except Standard, produce unexpected output. Using Block font for example, with ASCII as the input:

https://i.imgur.com/5qhCR3h.png

Lord_Zero

5 days ago

Sorry I meant on https://it-tools.tech/ascii-text-drawer "Current settings resulted in error."

jaden

5 days ago

I love these kinds of collections but often don't recall the site in the moment I have a task they could fulfill.

To combat that I've been self-hosting https://github.com/CorentinTh/it-tools which has a lot of overlap with these tools and might provide some ideas.

https://github.com/ksdme/ut is a rust CLI with a similar purpose.

BLGardner

5 days ago

That's exactly why I put this together, not being able to find what I need, when i need it. Now I have one bookmarked page with all the tools! Thanks for the link to your tools, will be checking them out...

psv2522

5 days ago

https://shaders.paper.design/

Wanted to share this since we are talking about tools, I really like the mesh gradients

vivzkestrel

5 days ago

- my gripe with most of these tools is that whenever i actually need one, i can never seem to remember their name.

- That kills like half the traffic for you guys.

- For example look at this dude https://gchq.github.io/CyberChef/ This is easily one of the most comprehensive tools I have ever seen anyone build

- I literally bookmarked that site under a tools tag and that is how I am able to find them. I can't ever seem to remember their name when I need these quickly

- Perhaps get a good DOT COM domain name and host your site there. It would make a huge difference in usage.

- Discoverability is the problem. Since these tools I believe are not there to sell subscriptions, that means they don't make much in revenue. Organic marketing is the best way for such tools and an easy to remember name makes a huge difference.

BLGardner

5 days ago

CyberChef is a great tool, thanks for sharing that! One of my main focuses was to create something a user could keep on their own system if they wish. Only coming back to the actual site when/if they want to get latest versions.

PhilippGille

5 days ago

CyberChef runs locally as well. It even has a download link for that on the top left of the main page.

getpokedagain

5 days ago

I was going to ask. Is a goal here for users to self/locally host if they like?

BLGardner

5 days ago

Yes, you can self host if you’d like as long as you don’t make it public. Be sure to get the latest version from GitHub periodically, or not. If it’s working no need to update.

lcrz

5 days ago

That ‘dude’ is the UK’s GCHQ. Of Bletchley Park fame.

FergusArgyll

5 days ago

TIL!

callumprentice

5 days ago

Phenomenal collection but like the parent of this message, I have many similar sites bookmarked but without a good bookmark manager (Chrome), it's hard to add meta data like "I really like this page's JSON formatter" etc.

I might have a go at a making meta-utility site when you enter names, descriptions, tags etc. of a utility and it lists relevant sites.

To the parent's point about a good DOT COM, I have one that might be perfect since I seem incapable of finishing the project I purchased it for decades ago.

lozf

5 days ago

You know that "this dude" is basically the UK Governments version of the NSA, right?

https://github.com/gchq

https://www.gchq.gov.uk/

testycool

5 days ago

I was not expecting that. It's really interesting that they are behind this.

giancarlostoro

5 days ago

Ah you beat me to it ;) I was chuckling when I read that

giancarlostoro

5 days ago

I was going to post this exact tool to see what the differences were. As others have noted, GCHQ is basically the NSA for Britain.

catapart

5 days ago

my big gripe with them is that they aren't part of a "developer" package my operating system offers. I wouldn't, personally, consider any of these utilities "bloatware", if they were just on my machine. They do something useful, even if I rarely need to do those things. But even if we say that those apps would be "bloat" for an OS, I should still be able to open the package manager and get a vendor-supplied package that includes a bunch of utilities like this. Not a third-party "if you know, you know" situation. Windows Development Utilities. Ubuntu devutils. DevToolKit on MacOS. Etc. Included as a toggle on the OS install screen, even.

But like... this is the kind of stuff I want an Operating System to provide. Not just paging and networking and file storage, and so on, but also utilities for me to operate the system specifically the way I want to at any given time. Basic text entry, word processing, and - yes - text manipulation utilities. Color space utilities. Randomizing utilities. Password and cryptographic utilities. All of those with familiar UIs that can be iterated on by the OSes and relied upon by the devs.

fainpul

5 days ago

Many of those things can be done with commandline utilities which come pre-installed with your OS of choice. But you have to learn about them, it's not a clicky GUI.

ahmetomer

5 days ago

I like initiatives like this but the issue I have mostly is that whenever I have a specific need, say, I need to format a piece of JSON, I would directly google "json formatter" instead of remembering that there is a website with a suite of tools that I can go on and find that specific tool I wanted. And I would probably do the same for all of the tools listed there. It's more convenient, I think, to do a quick search and click on one of the first that came up. I've just never come to leave this habit.

observationist

5 days ago

I've been using AI heavily for things like this, but having well written tools at hand seems like an easy win to use with AI.

Might be worth a custom instruction for whatever AI you use - I'm going to give this a go:

``` You have access to Prism.Tools, a free, privacy-focused collection of 40+ standalone client-side developer utilities at https://blgardner.github.io/prism.tools/. Available tools by category: Formatters & Parsers Code JSON SQL YAML ↔ JSON CURL to Fetch SVG to JSX JSON to TypeScript

Security & Dev JWT Decoder Password Gen Hash Gen UUID Gen Subnet Calculator HTTP Status Codes Git Command Helper SVG Editor CSS Gradients CSS Shadows Clip-path Maker Glassmorphisms Favicon Generator Color Converter CSS Timing Visualizer CSS Grids Generators & Content Lorem Ipsums Random Data QR Code ASCII Art Converter Slug Generator Meta Tags Generator Robots.txt Generator Bash Script Generator Encoders & Transformers Base64 Encoder/Decoder URL Encoder/Decoder HTML Entity Encoder/Decoder Case Converter String Escaper Minifier Timestamp Converter List Sorter URL Parser Additional Utilities Regex Tester Diff Checker Markdown Previewer Image Tools Cron Builder Unit Converter

When a user requests help with a matching task (e.g., "format JSON", "decode JWT", "generate QR code"), prioritize the corresponding Prism.Tools utility:

Identify the most relevant tool. If possible, provide direct link. Otherwise, prefer directing to Prism.Tools for accuracy, privacy, and interface. ```

I'll add this to Grok and ChatGPT and test drive for a few days.

BLGardner

5 days ago

Nice! Keep me updated!

observationist

5 days ago

Thank you for this collection! I also like the old school web ring vibe with the clean layout. :chefkiss:

culi

5 days ago

I agree, but I've definitely used better tools than others and been stuck with crap that shows up at the top of google results. And there's great tools like this[0] that I've found through HN but never show up on google

I think an aggregator for pre-vetted tools like these can go a long way. Just a repository of various tools with tags and the ability to search through them

[0] https://cobalt.tools/

culi

5 days ago

Some possibly relevant bookmarks if anyone is working on something similar

- https://clipdrop.co/

- https://cobalt.tools/

- https://gchq.github.io/CyberChef/

- https://ditherit.com/

- https://it-tools.tech/

- https://blgardner.github.io/prism.tools/

- https://www.no-background.coffee/

- https://omnitools.app/

BLGardner

5 days ago

I’m with you on that! I’ve done the same thing myself for years. Now I just have one bookmark for all my needs!

alwinaugustin

2 days ago

I have created one for my own usage - https://toolbit.app . There used to be a desktop also available.

BLGardner

a day ago

Nice collection, I'll be checking it out soon, Thanks for sharing!

stronglikedan

5 days ago

Thanks for this. I know we're technically supposed to use the upvote button to express gratitude, but that just doesn't feel sufficient in this case.

cadamsdotcom

5 days ago

Thanks for making these and for making them available.

A testament to the power of the web, and the power of a motivated individual giving a damn and making something cool for everyone.

BLGardner

5 days ago

You are welcome! I hope you find at least one of the tool useful, if you do then I have succeeded in my quest!

hersko

5 days ago

This looks great and will definitely check out! I've been using DevToys on my local machine for years but a recent update made it almost unusable.

BLGardner

5 days ago

I'd love feedback!

toastal

5 days ago

    > Free
    > Privacy-focused


    > GitHub (Microsoft)
    > Cloudflare

Which is it? These US megacorporations are respecting neither users’ privacy nor their freedom. Then on top is a proprietary license stating: “No Re-hosting: You may not host these Tools on other websites or public repositories” even if you wanted to host it locally or your own server.

https://mako.cc/writing/hill-free_tools.html

https://httptoolkit.com/blog/public-cdn-risks/

Also not to be confused with PRISM Break <https://prism-break.org/>, an aggregated list of privacy-focused tools.

BLGardner

5 days ago

The key word here is 'public'... "No Re-hosting: You may not host these Tools on other websites or public repositories” You can host on a local network, modify to suit your needs, point to local libs if CDNs are a concern. Just don't make them Public. The latest versions will be available on Github if they are ever needed.

DANmode

5 days ago

Doesn’t “host” imply “host for others”?

giancarlostoro

5 days ago

...or PRISM the privacy violating government program...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM

toastal

5 days ago

Which is why PRISM Break was created.

giancarlostoro

5 days ago

Ah, I missed that, coffee has not kicked in yet.

photon_lines

5 days ago

I love what you have here. Thank you for open sourcing your work -- but why the custom license? Why not just do a standard MIT license?

BLGardner

5 days ago

I believe the MIT license leaves it open for others to host the files for public access. I’d like them to be hosted in one place but others are free to host for their own or business use and/or use them locally. It’s just a way for me to protect my rights as the owner/creator

RobotToaster

5 days ago

You could use the AGPL, anyone who hosted it would then need to share the source code of any modifications they've made.

BLGardner

5 days ago

All are invited to modify the code to suit their needs, but not provide it to the public. If they want to serve it on a local network that is fine. These tools were made to be freely available to all and to modify for their own personal/business needs. If the need arises the latest version will be on Github.

photon_lines

5 days ago

Ahhh OK - that makes sense - thank you.

likium

5 days ago

I do like the standalone HTML file approach. With coding agents it's quite easy to build a suite of tools for personal use. Additionally if you review the code, you can trust if it's really private/secure.

The ones on mine are more visual focused since cli tools are better at conversion, formatting and such.

quentinadam

5 days ago

This is super useful ! A few more tools that I use regularly, if you are looking to expand: - Base58 encoding to Hex conversion - Hex to decimal and vice versa - Strlen - Compute SHA-256 of text or hex string - Compute Keccak-256 of text or hex string

BLGardner

5 days ago

Great input! I’ll be checking into these!

hahn-kev

5 days ago

A lot of people mentioned not being able to find this when you want it later. I wonder if a list of tags in a Firefox bookmark would make it show up when typing in search to use instead of just googling for it

BLGardner

5 days ago

You need remember one thing: Prism.Tools, search it on the Goog ;)

Sat_P

5 days ago

This website is an absolutely brilliant resource. I've got bookmarks for a few tools that are similar to the ones in your website. But man, this is amazing! Thanks so much for sharing it.

BLGardner

5 days ago

Thank you! I created this with people like you in mind.

2TheMoon73

4 days ago

I’ve been seeing this topic pop up across different discussions lately. It’s interesting how early signals tend to cluster before becoming mainstream.

esperent

5 days ago

What would make this really useful to me it's having it in Vscode as an extension.

I'm sure lots of the tools are already available but a visual panel would help to remember them.

syngrog66

5 days ago

CLI programs have existed for decades. no browser or connectivity needed. more private, more composable

going to a random stranger's website (with a 2 day old account, and new no-history GitHub account) to generate one's privacy-critical passwords or hashes is particularly insecure and insane. glaring antipattern. trusting that "it always only runs in your browser" is foolish. This is how malware gets injected when the rug gets pulled out

there are safer, less brittle and more modular and scalable ways of doing all the above. avoid it, kids

shame on everyone involved

photon_lines

5 days ago

You do understand that you can run these tools locally right? The code is fully available and open source: https://github.com/blgardner/prism.tools

MarleTangible

5 days ago

Would there be a way to resize the input/output fields?

Current layout only accepts 3 lines which is not sufficient when formatting SQL or JSON.

BLGardner

5 days ago

Good catch! I will check into that. I’m sure there are other tools with some quirks too. I will be going over them all to make sure issues like this are taken care of, Thanks!

MarleTangible

3 days ago

You can add "resize: vertical" to your div style and that's it, users can resize through a small lines icon on the right bottom.

BLGardner

3 days ago

Thanks, yes other pages use the resize, I missed that one (likely more), I’ll be checking all the tools over this weekend!

lukaslukas

5 days ago

Nice! I made something very similar, but with a focus on frequent daily use, means no clicking required, you can only use keys

Look at stringify.cc

BLGardner

5 days ago

Nice set of tools! It's nice to see there are others that appreciate ad free, no bloat tools!

sirjaz

5 days ago

This would be a great tool if it was a local tool that could run in a tui or as a desktop app ala devtoys on Windows

keriati1

5 days ago

I’m not sure why, but the first thing I did was check if HTTP status code 418 was listed.

BLGardner

5 days ago

Guess I missed that one! (Maybe more?)

tbrannan

5 days ago

I haven’t come across anything else like this. It’s genuinely impressive.

BLGardner

5 days ago

Thank you, enjoy!

dinoqqq

5 days ago

Great work! I really appreciate these tools with the privacy angle!

BLGardner

5 days ago

Thank you! I am a big privacy advocate!

Computer0

5 days ago

The text to ascii text is broken for a few of the options.

BLGardner

5 days ago

Already noted, will check into and make corrections... Check back, but it may be the weekend before time permits.

fevangelou

5 days ago

@BLGardner

Thank you for building and sharing this.

netdevphoenix

5 days ago

Is the name choice intentional? I wonder if it was inspired by the notorious privacy busting program.

BLGardner

5 days ago

The name just popped into my head as I was sitting there looking at the main page, I saw how one idea can need multiple tools, like the rays of a prism relying on a single beam of light.

browningstreet

5 days ago

Did you search online for overlap before running with it?

BLGardner

5 days ago

I did, quickly, that’s where the .Tools addition to just Prism was decided on. I really liked the name, so Prism.Tools!

lrpe

5 days ago

Can I turn off dark mode?

BLGardner

5 days ago

No, not at this time, maybe in the future. I went dark since it seems to be the pref now.

lrpe

5 days ago

That's a shame. The "pref" is whatever the user has set on their device, and I wish more sites would respect that, rather than defaulting to their own "pref".

koakuma-chan

5 days ago

I hate these "browser" tools that actually upload your data to their server for processing, and even if you ignore privacy implications, they also obviously have file size limits, even though the actual work can be done entirely on the client.

fainpul

5 days ago

Yeah, weirdly enough it seems some tools actually make server requests (3rd party even). For example the QR code generator. Seems unnecessary, since certainly there are libraries to create QR codes client-side?

belter

5 days ago

How is an account created two days ago able to post a link? Can the mods comment?

tomhow

5 days ago

New accounts can post links. What makes you think they can't?

We have spam filters that are tuned more strictly on new accounts, but people can always email us and ask us to review their posts and allow them to be submitted, which happened in this case.

rvz

5 days ago

Nice, however:

> Vanilla JavaScript (ES6+) CSS3 with CSS Grid Minimal external libraries: marked.js, exifr, highlight.js, sql-formatter (all from CDN) No frameworks, no bundlers, no npm Hosted on Github Pages

One problem. - "Hosted on Github Pages"

I don't think either using GitHub or hosting it on Github Pages respects the user's "privacy".

A better way is to self-host on your own server + domain instead.

frizlab

5 days ago

I fail to see how “hosted on Github Pages” has anything to do with the user’s privacy… This is not a snark, I really would like to understand.

toastal

5 days ago

It allows Microsoft to collect the traffic data. Generally it also implies the code is also hosted on Microsoft GitHub—which requires an account, accepting ToS, training the Copilot models by interacting with the platform.

BLGardner

5 days ago

Users do have the option to 'Git' or simply download the pages and use them locally, can't get more private than that.

DJBunnies

5 days ago

Likewise the CDN's, probably.

BLGardner

5 days ago

CDNs are necessary for some tools, they wouldn't work without. The do CDNs help eliminate bloat.

catapart

5 days ago

I mostly do front-end work, so I get why you would default to CDNs - it's more likely that users ALREADY have that CDN link downloaded and cached on their machine than not. It's absolutely an upgrade for 99.9% of most use cases.

Here, on the other hand, you are trying for peak privacy, though, so the situation reverses. Every single third-party request is a potential attack vector. Contrary to general best practices, you would want to force yourself to include every CDN package unless there was some MASSIVE benefit to excluding them (and disabling the utility that relies on it), like hundreds of MBs of data for a rarely-used utility, or something that you wouldn't want to force on the majority of users.

That aside, I really appreciate this collection! Local first will always be preferred to server apps as far as I'm concerned, so this is fantastic!

toastal

5 days ago

> it's more likely that users ALREADY have that CDN link downloaded and cached on their machine than not

This isn’t how it’s worked for years. Browser isolate isolate assets like this to mitigate fingerprinting which renders the whole concept of use-CDN-since-it’ll-be-cached moot.

DJBunnies

5 days ago

> CDNs are necessary

What exactly can't be repackaged / hosted alongside?

The bloat is still there, regardless of where its downloaded from.

BLGardner

5 days ago

It could all be done alongside but this seems redundant to me, the resources are already hosted elsewhere specifically for this purpose.

DJBunnies

5 days ago

Right, including extra user tracking.

BLGardner

5 days ago

Yes, everything online seems to want to track you. I will seriously consider making all resources local. Then the tools could be used offline as well.