it-tools: Self-Hostable Developer Utility Collection Built with Vue

What it-tools Is and How to Use It

it-tools is a collection of browser-based utility tools aimed at developers and IT professionals. The hosted version lives at it-tools.tech. The README describes it as "useful tools for developer and people working in IT." All tools run client-side in the browser; there is no server-side processing for the core utilities.

The tool set covers common developer tasks: string encoding and decoding, hash generation, UUID creation, date formatting, color conversion, JWT inspection, regex testing, and more. The package.json keywords list productivity, converter, developer-tools, and developer-productivity, indicating the intended use cases. The exact tool list is in the repository's issues and the hosted site; the README itself does not enumerate every tool but notes that feature requests can be submitted as issues.

Self-Hosting with Docker

The README provides two Docker commands for self-hosting. From Docker Hub:

docker run -d --name it-tools --restart unless-stopped -p 8080:80 corentinth/it-tools:latest

From GitHub Packages:

docker run -d --name it-tools --restart unless-stopped -p 8080:80 ghcr.io/corentinth/it-tools:latest

Both commands expose the app on host port 8080 (mapped to container port 80). The Dockerfile uses a two-stage build: a Node.js Alpine stage compiles the Vue app with pnpm, and an Nginx Alpine stage serves the resulting static files with a custom nginx.conf. The README also lists Cloudron, Tipi, and Unraid as additional deployment options through their respective app stores.

Technology Stack and Contribution Setup

The frontend is built with Vue 3, Vite, TypeScript, and UnoCSS. The package.json shows additional dependencies: @tiptap/starter-kit for rich text editing in the text tools, @sindresorhus/slugify, and a collection of @vicons icons. Test coverage uses Vitest with a jsdom environment, and end-to-end tests use Playwright.

The README recommends VSCode with the Volar extension (and disabling the older Vetur), ESLint, and i18n Ally for localization. A VSCode settings snippet is provided in the README:

{
  "editor.formatOnSave": false,
  "editor.codeActionsOnSave": {
    "source.fixAll.eslint": true
  }
}

Contributors add new tools using a scaffold script:

pnpm run script:create:tool my-tool-name

This generates a directory under src/tools/ with the correct file structure and imports. The README notes the tool just needs to be added to its category in src/tools/index.ts afterward.

Development Workflow

Set up the project and start the development server:

pnpm install
pnpm dev

Build for production:

pnpm build

Run unit tests:

pnpm test

Run the linter:

pnpm lint

The build script sets NODE_OPTIONS=--max_old_space_size=4096, which suggests the full build can exhaust the default Node.js heap on low-memory machines. The package.json version is 2024.10.22-7ca5933, matching the most recent GitHub release tag.

Limitations of the it-tools Architecture

All processing runs in the browser. This is intentional for privacy (no data leaves the client) but it means it-tools cannot perform server-side tasks such as DNS lookups against custom resolvers, file system operations, or network connectivity tests. The tool set is bounded by what JavaScript running in a browser tab can do.

The repository has no GitHub releases since October 2024, though the last push was on 2026-09-24. Development continues but the release cadence is slow relative to the number of commits.

it-tools has no API. It cannot be called programmatically from a script or integrated into a CI pipeline. For use cases that need scriptable hashing, encoding, or format conversion, command-line tools are more appropriate.

How it-tools Compares to CyberChef

CyberChef, developed by GCHQ, is a similar browser-based developer tool collection with a particularly strong focus on cryptographic operations and data transformation chains. CyberChef uses a drag-and-drop recipe model that lets users chain multiple operations in sequence, which is useful for multi-step encoding or decryption tasks.

it-tools offers a simpler, cleaner UI focused on individual tools with a good user experience. The README specifically notes "great UX" as a design goal. The GPL-3.0 licensed codebase of it-tools is structured for easy contribution; adding a new tool requires creating a single directory with the scaffold script. CyberChef is Apache-2.0 licensed and oriented toward cryptographic and forensic tasks. Teams that need chained transformations will find CyberChef more capable; teams that want a clean UI for individual utility tasks will find it-tools sufficient.

License and Maintenance

it-tools is licensed under GNU GPL v3. The README includes a link to the license file. Forking and modifying the project for internal use is permitted, but distributing a modified version outside the organization requires releasing the modifications under the same GPL terms.

The project is deployed on Vercel for the public instance, as noted in the README credits. The contributor graph is managed through contrib.rocks. The package.json shows [email protected] as the package manager and lists the author as Corentin Thomasset. The last push was on 2026-09-24, and the last GitHub release tag is v2024.10.22-7ca5933.

Editorial conclusion

it-tools is a useful reference for developers who want a self-hostable, browser-based toolbox for everyday encoding, hashing, formatting, and conversion tasks. The GPL-3.0 license means modified versions distributed externally must be open-sourced. Teams integrating it into an internal tooling portal should evaluate the license implications before forking; the source is straightforward Vue and the contribution scaffolding makes adding tools simple.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Official documentation
2. Official README
3. Project repository
4. Release notes