About ptools.io

Pocket tools. The small jobs, done on the spot.

The name

ptools.io is short for pocket tools. The idea is the one behind a pocket knife rather than a workshop: a handful of small things you reach for without thinking, that are already there when the job turns up, and that you put away again without having signed up for anything.

The problems it solves

None of them are big problems. That is the point. They are the ones that interrupt an afternoon:

• A JSON blob from an API that is one long line and needs reading.
• A photo that is 8 MB and has to be under 2 MB to attach.
• A PDF where you need pages 4 to 9 and nothing else.
• A CSV too big for a spreadsheet to open without thinking about it.
• A meeting at 15:00 in Lisbon, and what that is in São Paulo.
• A name to draw out of a hat, with everyone watching.

Each one is its own page, doing one job, with the controls for that job and nothing else on screen. There are 34 of them.

How it is built

The work is done by Rust compiled to WebAssembly, which is why a million-row CSV scrolls smoothly and a PDF is rebuilt in the time it takes to let go of the mouse. Each page ships as a single self-contained file: the code, the styles and the WebAssembly are all inlined, so there is nothing to fetch after the page loads. Load a tool once, turn the network off, and it keeps working. Save the page to your machine and it still works from there.

Your input is read by the page and worked on there. It is not uploaded, because nothing in the page sends it anywhere. There is no account, no history and no project to create first.

Who makes it

One person, because these are small tools and small tools do not need a team. Ads pay for the domain and the time; the privacy page says exactly what that involves and what it does not.

Suggestions

If a job keeps interrupting your afternoon and there is no tool here for it, that is the most useful thing you can send: [email protected].