A couple of weeks ago I wrote that Archify was coming and asked people to join a waitlist. That post ended with "coming soon."
This one doesn't. Archify is live. It's a Chrome extension, you can install it right now, and it does the thing I promised: you hover over any web app and it tells you how the app is built — without a single byte leaving your browser.
Ten seconds, not an afternoon
The old routine for understanding an unfamiliar app is archaeology. Open DevTools, inspect elements, dig through the network tab, hunt for source maps, trace API calls across a dozen tabs until a mental model finally clicks.
Archify collapses that into a hover. Install it, open any site, and move your cursor over the page. An overlay follows along, and for whatever you're pointing at it shows:
- The framework behind it — React, Next.js, Vue, Angular, Svelte
- The component type — dialog, menu, button, input, tooltip
- The UI library — MUI, Ant, Bootstrap, Chakra, Radix
- The recent API calls the page has made — method, path, status, latency
Click to lock the overlay in place so you can read it properly. Press Escape to let it follow your cursor again. That's the whole interaction.
Every claim comes with a confidence — and it never makes names up
This is the part I care about most, and it's the reason Archify took longer than a weekend.
Most detection tools guess confidently and are wrong just often enough to waste your time. Archify does the opposite. Every claim it makes carries a confidence score, and when it can't actually prove something, it says unknown instead of inventing an answer.
On a development build it can be specific. On a minified production bundle — where the component was named a and the class is css-1q2w3e — it will not fabricate a component name to look smart. It tells you what the runtime can actually prove and marks the rest honestly.
My favorite example is shadcn/ui. At runtime it's just Radix primitives with Tailwind classes pasted in — genuinely indistinguishable from raw Radix once it's shipped. So Archify says Radix, and offers shadcn only as a low-confidence hint with a note explaining why it can't be sure. A tool that admits what it doesn't know is worth more than one that's confidently wrong.
The second tab I didn't mention last time: Security
The waitlist post was all about architecture. Here's the part I saved: there's a second tab, and it changes the question from "how is this built?" to "what is this page doing to me?"
Switch to Security and, for the page you're on, you get:
- Third-party scripts — how many of the scripts running here come from someone other than the site itself
- Outbound calls — how many network requests go out, and to how many third-party domains
- Form and payment field access — and this is the sharp one: which scripts are in a position to read your password, card number, or CVC fields
That last one works by watching which script attaches a listener to a sensitive input, and naming where that script came from. It's not an accusation — a script reading a field can be perfectly legitimate. It just makes visible something that is normally invisible: who is technically able to see what you type. Point it at a checkout page you don't run and you may find that list longer than you'd like.
Nothing leaves your browser
Everything above happens locally. There is no cloud step, no server-side analysis, no source upload, no account, and no telemetry. Archify intercepts fetch and XHR, reads the framework globals, and inspects the DOM — all inside your tab — and renders the result right there.
That isn't a privacy promise stapled onto the marketing. It's the architecture. There is no "other end" to send your code to, because I never built one. The systems you explore stay entirely yours.
What's not in it yet
Honesty cuts both ways, so: v1 is deliberately small. There's no AI "explain this app" mode, no architecture graph, and no exports. It's Chrome-only for now. Those are on the roadmap, not in the box — and I'd rather ship something small and honest than something impressive and vague.
Install it
If you've ever opened DevTools and wished the app would just explain itself, this is for you. It's free, it's local, and it installs in a click.
Install Archify at archify.salahxd.dev — then open any site, hover, and see what it's actually made of. Software shouldn't be a black box.
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