I built an explicit content filter API for indie devs, and I'd love your feedback

Jozef — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 07:14:52 +0000

Hey everyone,

I'm Jozef. I work as a Product Manager and build side projects in my free time.

A few months ago, I needed a way to filter out explicit and NSFW images for an app. I realized the existing tools, like AWS Rekognition or Hive, target large companies. They have complicated pricing, heavy SDKs, and take too much time to set up for a solo dev trying to pass App Store guidelines.

So I built Tabu. It is an image and video moderation API made for indie developers and small teams.

Here is the tech stack:

Machine learning: It uses TensorFlow.js (MobileNetV2) running on my own servers. Inference takes about 200ms.
Privacy: Images process in memory and delete instantly. Nothing gets saved.
Caching: I added SHA-256 hashing with lru-cache to deduplicate requests. If you upload the exact same image twice, it skips the ML model and returns the cached result.

I need some feedback

I want to improve the product before a larger release. I am looking for a few developers to test it and tell me what is broken or confusing.

Read the docs: Tell me if the setup steps make sense.
Test the API: Get a free key, upload some edge-case images, and see if the caching works.
Check the dashboard: Tell me if the UI is hard to use.

The free tier includes 5,000 requests per month, so you do not need a credit card to try it.

If you have a few minutes, please let me know what you think in the comments. I am here to learn.

🔗 Website
🔗 API Docs

DEV Community: Jozef

I built an explicit content filter API for indie devs, and I'd love your feedback

I need some feedback