What's the one dev tool tab you ALWAYS have open?
Quick confession — I opened my browser today and counted
14 tabs. 9 of them were "utility" sites:
- 2 different JSON formatters (one for big files, one prettier)
- A JWT decoder
- A base64 encoder
- A regex tester
- A UUID generator
- A cron expression parser
- Two SQL formatters (because one doesn't do BigQuery)
Every single one has ads. Half of them upload my data to
"the cloud" for a task that's literally 3 lines of JavaScript.
Here's what's wild — I've been doing this for 8+ years.
Every dev I know does this. We just accept it.
So I wanted to ask the PH community:
1. What's the ONE utility tool tab you can never close?
2. Have you ever pasted something sensitive (JWT, API
response, DB dump) into a random online tool and later
thought "wait... where did that data just go?"
3. If you could merge 5 of these tools into one keyboard
shortcut (⌘K style), which 5 would they be?
Genuinely curious what your daily "utility stack" looks
like — I've been building something in this space and
the patterns I'm seeing are wild.
(No link drop — this is a real question. Happy to share
what I'm working on in the comments if anyone's curious.)
Replies
I always keep my terminal dashboard open alongside my editor. Watching builds, logs, and test results in real time helps me catch problems before they become bigger issues.
@isabella_wandrei Isabella, terminal-first workflow is honestly the cleanest setup — real-time feedback loop is unbeatable. Respect. 🙌
Quick question since you live in the terminal: do you ever hit that annoying moment where you need to do something slightly GUI — like visually diff two JSON blobs, generate a QR code for a mobile test, or pick a color from a design mockup — and suddenly you're back in browser tab hell? That's the gap I've been obsessing over lately. Terminal for 90% of the work, but that last 10% keeps pulling us back to sketchy utility sites.
I created a keyboard shortcut for generating uuids because opening a website just to generate, copy, and paste one was tedious. What I need most often, though, is a simple a json prettier - especially now that so many of the top-ranking ones are cluttered with unnecessary features and ads.
your second question made me think about how causally teams share snippets during debugging. A database sample or API payload can contain sensitive information even after obvious fields are removed. Maybe utility tools should include automatic redaction before processing pasted content.
@joan_garcamo Spot on, Joan! The amount of un-sanitized API logs and DB dumps that get pasted around daily is honestly terrifying.
Auto-redacting sensitive patterns (like authorization headers, emails, or secret keys) client-side before processing is a brilliant idea. Added this to the DevHub Toolkit feature list — thanks for bringing this up!
This is a great question because I think most developers have quietly accepted this workflow. 😄
For me, a JSON formatter and a JWT decoder are probably the tabs that never disappear. The privacy point is also a real concern—it's easy to paste sensitive data into an online tool without thinking twice, especially when you're moving quickly.
If I could combine five tools into one shortcut, I'd pick:
* JSON formatter/validator
* JWT decoder
* Base64 encoder/decoder
* UUID generator
* Regex tester
I work in Online Reputation Management, so I also think trust plays a role here. If a utility tool clearly explains that processing happens locally and no data is stored or uploaded, that's a feature many developers will genuinely appreciate.
I'm curious to see what you're building—it sounds like you're solving a problem a lot of developers deal with every day.