I built a free tool that tells Etsy sellers if their listing follows the AI rules

Tariq Shahzad — Tue, 27 Oct 2026 14:43:14 +0000

I am Tariq, a freelancer from Pakistan, and I build free tools for freelancers in my small store, The Freelancer Kit. Every product in it has a free version that works forever.

Etsy updated its AI rules in October 2026, and a lot of sellers are confused about what is allowed. AI-generated functional guides like patterns and recipes are not allowed, and physical listings need a real, unedited photo of the real item. AI art is allowed, but only with clear disclosure.

So I built the Etsy AI Compliance Checker. You answer 13 questions about your listing, and it tells you one of three things: Ready, Fix first, or Do not publish. It also writes an honest AI disclosure you can paste into your listing. It does not help anyone get around Etsy's checks — it helps you pass them honestly.

I also built five small tools for work AI cannot do for you: a shop sales and udhaar ledger, a committee tracker, a cash-on-delivery order tracker, a WhatsApp chat analyzer, and a Gulf job CV readiness checker. All of them work offline, with no account and no data leaving your device.

The free tools and templates are here: https://thefreelancerkit.com

If you sell on Etsy, try the checker before you publish, and tell me what it got wrong — I would rather fix it than have a seller lose a listing.

I built two free Chrome extensions for freelancers — a proxy connector and a translator

Tariq Shahzad — Fri, 23 Oct 2026 04:29:57 +0000

I'm a solo freelancer from Pakistan. Between client work I build small tools, mostly to fix annoyances in my own workday. This week I shipped two of them as free Chrome extensions, and I want to explain the thinking, because "free" is a deliberate strategy, not a pricing accident.

ProxyShield — an always-on proxy connector

A lot of freelancers in my part of the world work through proxies for parts of their job. The built-in browser options are clumsy, and most extensions I tried were either bloated or wanted a subscription for basics. ProxyShield connects your own SOCKS5 proxy profiles (up to 5), keeps the connection on, and fails over to the next profile if one drops. You can import and export your profiles.

One honest disclaimer, because it matters: ProxyShield is a connector, not a VPN. It doesn't provide any proxy servers — you bring your own proxy. I say that on the product page too.

LinguaTap — a one-tap translator

Half my client communication crosses a language gap. LinguaTap translates selected text or a whole page in 15 languages with auto-detect, without leaving the tab. It runs on Google Translate's free service — I'm not affiliated with Google, and the extension says so openly.

Why free?

I run a small store, The Freelancer Kit, where I sell template packs and one-click tools for freelancers. Paid ads are not realistic at my scale, so the free tools are the front door: they solve a real problem today, and some of the people who use them later wander into the store. Free first, paid when it earns it.

Both extensions are on the site with free downloads (the site also has free proposal/contract/invoice samplers): https://thefreelancerkit.com

If you try either one, I would genuinely like to hear what breaks or what's missing. Solo maker, real feedback beats analytics at this stage.

— Tariq

DEV Community: Tariq Shahzad

I built a free tool that tells Etsy sellers if their listing follows the AI rules

I built two free Chrome extensions for freelancers — a proxy connector and a translator