The best Hacker News stories from Show from the past week
Latest posts:
Show HN: Write It Down – Personal finance tracker
Everyone’s chasing AI hype.
I built a Google Sheet and it quietly took off.<p>In 2020, I made it to track my own finances for income, expenses, savings, yearly summaries etc. I shared it once on Reddit, forgot about it for a year… When I checked back, it had over 130k views and I was honestly stoked!<p>No launch. No funding. No AI.
Just a spreadsheet people actually stick with and find useful.<p>I finally gave it a proper home: write-it-down.com
Now, more than 2,300 people use it.<p>It’s intentionally boring and that’s why it works.<p>People don’t always need AI. They just need something that actually solves their problem.
This isn’t a billion-dollar startup of course, but it taught me more about building products than almost anything else.<p>Build something useful.
Solve a real problem.
Even if it’s just a simple spreadsheet.<p>So, what’s the most “boring” thing you’ve built that found unexpected traction?
Show HN: ut – Rust based CLI utilities for devs and IT
Hey HN,<p>I find myself reaching for tools like it-tools.tech or other random sites every now and then during development or debugging. So, I built a toolkit with a sane and simple CLI interface for most of those tools.<p>For the curious and lazy, at the moment, ut has tools for,<p>- Encoding: base64 (encode, decode), url (encode, decode)<p>- Hashing: md5, sha1, sha224, sha256, sha384, sha512<p>- Data Generation: uuid (v1, v3, v4, v5), token, lorem, random<p>- Text Processing: case (lower, upper, camel, title, constant, header, sentence, snake), pretty-print, diff<p>- Development Tools: calc, json (builder), regex, datetime<p>- Web & Network: http (status), serve, qr<p>- Color & Design: color (convert)<p>- Reference: unicode<p>For full disclosure, parts of the toolkit were built with Claude Code (I wanted to use this as an opportunity to play with it more).
Feel free to open feature requests and/or contribute.
Show HN: Pyscn – Python code quality analyzer for vibe coders
Hi HN! I built pyscn for Python developers in the vibe coding era.
If you're using Cursor, Claude, or ChatGPT to ship Python code fast, you know the feeling: features work, tests pass, but the codebase feels... messy.<p>Common vibe coding artifacts:<p>• Code duplication (from copy-pasted snippets)<p>• Dead code from quick iterations<p>• Over-engineered solutions for simple problems<p>• Inconsistent patterns across modules<p>pyscn performs structural analysis:<p>• APTED tree edit distance + LSH<p>• Control-Flow Graph (CFG) analysis<p>• Coupling Between Objects (CBO)<p>• Cyclomatic Complexity<p>Try it without installation:<p><pre><code> uvx pyscn analyze . # Using uv (fastest)
pipx run pyscn analyze . # Using pipx
(Or install: pip install pyscn)
</code></pre>
Built with Go + tree-sitter. Happy to dive into the implementation details!
Show HN: Autism Simulator
Hey all, I built this. It’s not trying to capture every autistic experience (that’d be impossible). It’s based on my own lived experience as well as that of friends on the spectrum.<p>I'm trying to give people a feel for what masking, decision fatigue, and burnout can look like day-to-day. That’s hard to explain in words, but easier to show through choices and stats. I'm not trying to "define autism".<p>I’ve gotten good feedback here about resilience, meds, and difficulty tuning. I’ll keep tweaking it. If even a few people walk away thinking, "ah, maybe that’s why my coworker struggles in those situations," then it’s worth it.<p>Appreciate everyone who’s tried it and shared thoughts.
Show HN: Glide, an extensible, keyboard-focused web browser
Show HN: Devbox – Containers for better dev environments
I've been frustrated with dependency hell and clutter on my VPS from dev, so I built Devbox: a lightweight, open-source CLI tool that spins up isolated development environments using Docker. Each project runs in its own container, but your code stays in simple flat folders on the host machine—no messing with volumes or sync issues. Environments are disposable, so you can nuke and recreate them without losing your work. Key features:
- Instant setup: `devbox init my-project` and you're in a fresh env with `devbox shell`.<p>- Configurable via JSON: Define packages, services, and more in a `devbox.json` file. Share it in your repo for reproducible setups—teammates just run `devbox up`.<p>- Docker-in-Docker by default: Build and run containers inside your env without extra config.<p>- Host-friendly: Edit code directly on your machine; the container handles the runtime.<p>- Templates for quick starts: Built-ins for Python, Node.js, Go, web dev, etc.<p>- Advanced options: Port mapping, env vars, resource limits, and even mounting your dotfiles.<p>It's FOSS (MIT license), Linux-focused (Debian/Ubuntu, or WSL2 on Windows), and super easy to install: `curl -fsSL <a href="https://devbox.ar0.eu/install.sh" rel="nofollow">https://devbox.ar0.eu/install.sh</a> | bash`.<p>Check out the launch page and docs at <a href="https://devbox.ar0.eu" rel="nofollow">https://devbox.ar0.eu</a>, or the repo at <a href="https://github.com/itzCozi/devbox" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/itzCozi/devbox</a>. I'd love some feedback, stars, or contributions to help grow this into a solid community tool!
Show HN: Sculptor – A UI for Claude Code
Hey, I'm Josh, cofounder of Imbue. We built Sculptor because we wanted a great UI for parallel coding agents.<p>We love Claude Code, but wanted to solve some of the problems that come from running multiple agents in parallel (ex: merge conflicts with multiple agents, reinstalling dependencies with git worktrees, Claude Code could deleting your home directory, etc).<p>Sculptor is a desktop app that lets you safely run Claude Code agents by putting them in separate docker containers. This lets you use Claude without having to compromise on security or deal with annoying tool permission prompts. Then you can just tell Claude to keep running the code until it actually works.<p>To help you easily work with containerized agents, we created “Pairing Mode”: bidirectionally sync the agent’s code into your IDE and test/edit together in real time. You can also simply pull and push manually if you want.<p>We have some more cool features planned on our roadmap that are enabled by this approach, like the ability to “fork” conversations (and the entire state of the container), or roll back to a previous state.<p>It’s still very early, but we would love your feedback.<p>Sculptor itself is free to use, so please try it out and let us know what you think!
Show HN: Sculptor – A UI for Claude Code
Hey, I'm Josh, cofounder of Imbue. We built Sculptor because we wanted a great UI for parallel coding agents.<p>We love Claude Code, but wanted to solve some of the problems that come from running multiple agents in parallel (ex: merge conflicts with multiple agents, reinstalling dependencies with git worktrees, Claude Code could deleting your home directory, etc).<p>Sculptor is a desktop app that lets you safely run Claude Code agents by putting them in separate docker containers. This lets you use Claude without having to compromise on security or deal with annoying tool permission prompts. Then you can just tell Claude to keep running the code until it actually works.<p>To help you easily work with containerized agents, we created “Pairing Mode”: bidirectionally sync the agent’s code into your IDE and test/edit together in real time. You can also simply pull and push manually if you want.<p>We have some more cool features planned on our roadmap that are enabled by this approach, like the ability to “fork” conversations (and the entire state of the container), or roll back to a previous state.<p>It’s still very early, but we would love your feedback.<p>Sculptor itself is free to use, so please try it out and let us know what you think!
Show HN: The Unite real time operating system
Show HN: Every single torrent is on this website
Show HN: Every single torrent is on this website
Show HN: Toolbrew – Free little tools without signups or ads
I got tired of fighting through spammy tool sites just to do something simple, so I made Toolbrew in a few hours on Replit. Just a bunch of free little tools in one place. Text converters, SEO checks, video downloaders, that kind of stuff. No signups, no ads.<p>If there is a tool you wish existed, you can request it on the site and I will build it. Do your worst. Seriously, ANY tool.<p>Maybe it helps, maybe not. Enjoy!
Show HN: Toolbrew – Free little tools without signups or ads
I got tired of fighting through spammy tool sites just to do something simple, so I made Toolbrew in a few hours on Replit. Just a bunch of free little tools in one place. Text converters, SEO checks, video downloaders, that kind of stuff. No signups, no ads.<p>If there is a tool you wish existed, you can request it on the site and I will build it. Do your worst. Seriously, ANY tool.<p>Maybe it helps, maybe not. Enjoy!
Show HN: Toolbrew – Free little tools without signups or ads
I got tired of fighting through spammy tool sites just to do something simple, so I made Toolbrew in a few hours on Replit. Just a bunch of free little tools in one place. Text converters, SEO checks, video downloaders, that kind of stuff. No signups, no ads.<p>If there is a tool you wish existed, you can request it on the site and I will build it. Do your worst. Seriously, ANY tool.<p>Maybe it helps, maybe not. Enjoy!
Show HN: I spent 4 months building Duolingo but for your life
Show HN: I spent 4 months building Duolingo but for your life
Show HN: A little notebook for learning linear algebra with Python
Show HN: A little notebook for learning linear algebra with Python
Show HN: Vibe Linking
Show HN: Vibe Linking