DEV Community: Charmi Soni

Developers switch environments 20 times a day. Why are you still editing URLs manually?

Charmi Soni — Mon, 11 May 2026 16:03:52 +0000

You're deep in a feature. you're on:

localhost:3000/projects/123/settings?view=advanced

something looks off. you need to check staging.

so you copy the URL, open a new tab, paste it, manually change the domain, hit enter, land on the homepage because the path didn't carry over, navigate back to the right page, realize you forgot the query param, do it again.

45 seconds. gone. and you do this 20 times a day.

That's 15 minutes daily.

75 minutes a week.

Just editing URLs.

Nobody talks about it because it feels too small to complain about. but it adds up. every single day.

So I built Soft.

It's a Chrome extension that puts a small bar at the top of your browser. you configure your environments once - localhost, staging, prod. after that it's one click to switch. path carries over. query params carry over. hash carries over. nothing lost.

It also turns red when you're on production. so you don't accidentally do something stupid while you think you're on staging.

I got my first paid user 15 days after launch and developers using it across 12 countries.

[https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/soft/dcfgbdenmbfijjioijidacabcpjebnlc?utm_source=item-share-cb]

We automated everything in our dev workflow. Except this one embarrassing thing.

Charmi Soni — Tue, 05 May 2026 20:01:29 +0000

CI/CD pipelines. Containerized environments. Automated testing. One-click deploys.

We spent years building the most efficient development workflow we could.
And then every single day, multiple times an hour, someone on the team would click the URL bar, triple-click to select, delete the domain, type a new one, and hit enter.

Like it's 2005.

Nobody said anything because it felt too small to bring up. It's six seconds. Who complains about six seconds?
The developer who does it 40 times a day. That's who.

Six seconds × 40 times × 5 days = 20 minutes of pure nothing. Every week. Per developer.

Multiply that by a team of 8 and you've lost over 2.5 hours of engineering time every week to something that should have been automated years ago.

We finally fixed it

I built Soft - a Chrome extension that puts a small bar at the top of every configured page.

Click staging. Click prod. Click local.
You land on the exact same path. Query params preserved. Hash preserved. Everything.

What it looks like in practice

You're debugging a checkout issue. You've been going back and forth between staging and prod for 20 minutes.

Before Soft:
staging.myapp.com/checkout/confirm?order=12345&ref=email
→ click URL bar
→ triple click
→ delete "staging."
→ type nothing (it's prod, not staging)
→ wait, delete "myapp.com"

→ type "staging.myapp.com"
→ realize you lost the query params
→ start over

With Soft:

staging.myapp.com/checkout/confirm?order=12345&ref=email
→ click "prod"
→ myapp.com/checkout/confirm?order=12345&ref=email

Done.

The feature I'm most proud of: Danger Mode
The bar turns red when you're on production.
Not subtle.
The entire bar - red, pulsing, impossible to miss.
Because everyone has a story. The migration that ran on prod. The email that went to real users. The record that got deleted.

Danger Mode exists so you never have to tell that story. It's free and always on.

Sticky Notes

Leave floating notes on any page in any environment.
Test cards on your checkout page. Known bugs where they actually appear. Staging credentials you always forget.

I didn't think people would care about this feature. Turns out it's the one developers mention first when they recommend it.

Free vs Pro

Free:

2 apps, 2 environments
Danger Mode — always on
Path-preserving switch
Jump to any environment in a new tab

Pro — $6/month:

Unlimited apps and environments
Sticky notes per page
Team config export as JSON or YAML
2 free uses of sticky notes included before upgrading

After the first week with zero marketing, we got 24 Installs and Users From the US, UK, and Japan.

Real developers found it through Chrome Web Store search. Nobody sent them there. They searched "environment switcher" and installed it.

That's when I knew the problem was real.

Try it here: [https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/soft/dcfgbdenmbfijjioijidacabcpjebnlc]

Holy shit. My new VS Code extension got 50+ installs overnight!

Charmi Soni — Mon, 04 May 2026 22:38:28 +0000

Yesterday I launched a VS Code extension.

The extension is called DeepCtx. It scans your entire repo, uses Al to summarize what each folder does, and saves a context file you paste into any Al tool. The Al instantly knows your codebase. No re-explaining.

Still early, obviously.

Try it free: [https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=DeepCtx.deepctx]

Would love feedback!

AI Has No Idea What Project You're Working On. So I Built a Fix. Got 40+ Installs Overnight!

Charmi Soni — Mon, 04 May 2026 13:27:33 +0000

Every time you open ChatGPT or Claude, it starts from zero.

No memory of your stack. No idea what your folder structure looks like. No clue about the patterns your team follows or the decisions you made six months ago.

So you spend the first 10 minutes of every session re-explaining everything before you can ask the actual question.

63% of developers in the Stack Overflow 2025 survey said AI tools lack crucial context about their codebase. That's 49,000 developers saying the same thing.

So a VS Code extension got built to fix it.

What it does
DeepCtx scans your entire repo, uses AI to summarize what each folder actually does, and saves a .deepctx.md file you paste into any AI tool before asking questions.

The AI instantly knows:
your stack and framework
what each folder and file does
your key dependencies
your architecture decisions
your git branch and last commit

No more re-explaining. Ever.

How it works
Step 1 — Install DeepCtx from the VS Code marketplace.

Step 2 — Open any project and pick your context slice:

🗂 General — full codebase overview
🐛 Debugging — focused on logic and error-prone areas
🔌 API — routes, handlers, controllers
🎨 UI — components, styles, layouts
🗄 Database — schemas, migrations, models
🧪 Tests — test files and coverage

Step 3 — Hit Scan. Watch it analyze your repo folder by folder.

Step 4 — Copy the generated context → paste into ChatGPT, Claude, or Cursor → ask your question.

That's it.

Try it for free: [https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=DeepCtx.deepctx]

I built a VS Code extension that gives AI instant context about your codebase - 20+ organic installs in 2 hours.

Charmi Soni — Sun, 03 May 2026 18:25:58 +0000

The problem

Every time you open ChatGPT or Claude, it has zero memory of your project.

You spend the first 10 minutes of every session re-explaining your stack, your folder structure, your naming conventions, your architecture decisions, before you can ask the actual question you came to ask.

63% of developers in the Stack Overflow 2025 survey (49,000 respondents) said AI tools lack crucial context about their codebase. This isn't a skill issue. It's a tooling gap.

What I built
DeepCtx - a free VS Code extension that auto-builds codebase context and injects it into any AI tool.

Here's how it works:

Install the extension — no account, no API key, nothing to set up

Open any project → pick your context slice.

Hit Scan & Build Context
Copy the generated .deepctx.md → paste into ChatGPT, Claude, or Cursor

Ask your question — the AI already knows your stack, your patterns, your file structure.

Changed-files mode — only rescans files modified since your last git commit. much faster for incremental updates.

Git metadata - every context file shows commit hash, branch name, and timestamp so the AI knows exactly how fresh the context is.

Confidence warnings - if large files were skipped during the scan, the context file explicitly warns the AI so it doesn't make assumptions about incomplete areas.

What makes it different
Unlike Cursor's .cursorrules (which you write manually and never update), DeepCtx auto-generates and auto-updates your context. And unlike native IDE AI tools, the output is portable — it works with any AI tool, not just the one you're coding in.

Try it
Search DeepCtx in VS Code extensions or install directly:
👉 [https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=deepctx.deepctx]

Completely free!

Would love honest feedback!

This tiny friction has stolen more developer hours than any bug ever will.

Charmi Soni — Fri, 01 May 2026 19:25:17 +0000

There's a tax on every developer's day that nobody talks about.
Not the big stuff. Not the architecture decisions or the deployment pipelines. The small stuff. The stuff that happens so often it becomes invisible.

You're on staging.myapp.com/dashboard/users/123/settings. You need to check the same page on prod. So you click the URL bar. Triple-click to select. Delete the domain. Type the new one. Hit enter.
Six seconds. No big deal.

Except you do it 40 times today. That's 4 minutes of pure nothing. Every single day. Just moving between environments like it's 2005, and we haven't figured out a better way yet.

I got tired of it. So I built Soft.
Soft is a Chrome extension that puts a small bar at the top of every page you've configured. Click staging. Click prod. Click local. You land on the exact same path - query params, hash, everything preserved - in one click.

How it works
Install Soft, open the pop-up, add your app, and map your environment URLs. Takes about 60 seconds.

From that moment on, every time you visit a configured page, the bar appears. Your environments are right there. One click away.

Here:(https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/soft/dcfgbdenmbfijjioijidacabcpjebnlc?utm_source=item-share-cb)

Danger Mode
Here's the feature I'm most proud of.
The bar turns red when you're on production.

Because every developer has a story. The migration they ran on prod instead of staging. The record they deleted. The email that went to real users instead of test accounts.

Danger Mode exists so you never have to tell that story.
It's free. Always on. No configuration needed.

The sticky notes thing (Pro)
This one sounds small until you use it daily.

Leave a floating note on any page, in any environment. Keyed to the exact URL and environment.Syncs via Chrome storage.

Test cards on your checkout page. Known bugs on the page where they appear. Credentials for the staging environment you always forget.
Right where you need them. Not in Slack from three weeks ago.

Free vs Pro
Free:

2 apps, 2 environments each
Danger Mode - always on
Path-preserving switch
Jump button to open env in new tab

Pro - $6/month:

Unlimited apps and environments
Sticky notes per page
Team config export as JSON or YAML
Unlimited exports

For the first 50 users!
Use code NEW30 at checkout for 30% off Pro.

Link to chrome extension: (https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/soft/dcfgbdenmbfijjioijidacabcpjebnlc)

Our whole team was editing URLs by hand every time we switched environments. So I fixed it.

Charmi Soni — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 07:48:23 +0000

It started as a team complaint.
Someone would be deep in a bug, need to check the same page on staging, and you'd hear the same thing every time - click the URL bar, delete the domain, type the new one, hope for no typos.

Someone else would do it wrong and end up on the wrong page entirely. Someone else would forget they were on prod and do something they shouldn't have.
It happened across the whole team. Every day. Dozens of times.

Nobody complained loudly because it felt too small to complain about. But small friction that happens dozens of times a day adds up fast.

So I built something to kill it permanently.

What Soft does
Soft is a Chrome extension that puts a small bar at the top of every page you've configured. Click an environment badge -local, staging, prod - and you land on the exact same path in that environment.

Query params preserved. Hash preserved. Everything carried over.

No copying. No editing. No landing on the wrong page.

The features
Path-preserving switch
You're on staging.myapp.com/users/123/settings and need prod. One click takes you to myapp.com/users/123/settings. Not the homepage. The exact same page.

Danger Mode
The bar turns red the moment you land on production. Pulsing warning. Hard to miss. Free and always on - because one accidental prod action is one too many.

Sticky Notes (Pro)
Leave floating notes on any page in any environment. Test cards, known bugs, credentials - right where you need them. Not buried in Slack. Not in a doc nobody opens.

Team Sharing (Pro)
Export your full config as JSON or YAML. One file, your whole team on identical setup. No accounts, no sync servers, no back-and-forth.

Who it's for
Any developer or team working across localhost, staging, and production. If manually editing URLs is part of your daily workflow - this is built for you.
Works on Chrome across Mac, Windows, Linux, and ChromeOS.

Pricing
Free: 2 apps, 2 environments. Danger Mode always on.
Pro: Unlimited everything, sticky notes, team sharing - $6/month.

Early access
First 50 Users get 30% off Pro with code NEW30 at checkout. Valid for 48 hours.

Chrome Web Store: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/dcfgbdenmbfijjioijidacabcpjebnlc?utm_source=item-share-cp

Happy to answer questions in the comments.