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'm rarely without GitHub open. For me, it's more than version control, it's where ideas become tasks, conversations become improvements, and feedback shapes the product
@addie_miranda I've always got my API documentation open because I hate interrupting my flow searching for endpoints later. Keeping docs one click away makes development feel much smoother.
@addie_miranda @ludovica_eleazer Curious, does anyone else keep documentation pinned permanently, or is it just me?
@ludovica_eleazer @sutton_willow honestly Sutton — you're not alone, pinned API docs is like 80% of devs I know. MDN, Stripe docs, whatever framework you're in... it's basically a second monitor at this point. 📌
Ludovica, the "interrupting flow" thing you said is exactly it. Every context switch to go search for something small costs way more than the 30 seconds it takes — you lose the mental model you were holding.
Which honestly is why the utility-tool tab problem hits so hard too. Docs pinned = intentional, high-value reference. But 8 tabs of JSON formatter / JWT decoder / base64 site? That's pure friction tax — same "flow interruption" cost, zero of the value. Docs earn their tab; sketchy utility sites don't. 🤔
@addie_miranda
Addie, this is such a good point — GitHub really has become the "operating system" for how ideas turn into shipped code. PRs, Issues, Discussions, Actions... it's wild how much lives there now.
Curious though — do you find yourself bouncing OUT of GitHub for the small stuff? Like when a PR review needs you to decode a JWT from a failing test, or format a huge JSON payload from a webhook log? That's the exact "tab tax" I keep hitting — GitHub is home base, but I still end up with 8 other tabs open just to read what's IN the PR. 😅
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.