The Problem That Annoyed Me Into Building Something
I spend most of my day debugging JSON payloads, generating hashes for API integrations, and converting timestamps. Like most developers, I'd Google "json formatter online" and click the first result.
And every single time, I'd land on a site that:
- Took 5 seconds to load because of 47 ad scripts
- Had a cookie consent banner covering half the screen
- Was probably logging my API responses on their server
That last one always bothered me. I work with auth tokens, internal API responses, and customer data. Pasting that into some random website felt... wrong.
So over the past few months, I built SnipTools — a collection of 10 developer utilities that run 100% inside your browser. No server uploads. No accounts. No ads.
What I Built
Here's the full toolkit:
Data & Formatting
- JSON Formatter & Validator — Beautify, minify, and validate JSON with line-by-line error detection. Configurable 2/4/tab indentation.
Security & Cryptography
- Hash Generator — MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, SHA-512 computed simultaneously. Supports HMAC with secret keys and file checksums up to 100MB. All powered by the native Web Crypto API.
Encoding & Decoding
- Base64 Encode & Decode — Handles text, files, and images. Full UTF-8 support (yes, emojis work). URL-safe Base64 toggle included.
- URL Encode & Decode — Three encoding modes: URI Component, Full URL, and RFC 3986 Strict.
Generators
- UUID Generator — UUID v4 (random) and the newer UUID v7 (time-ordered, great for database indexing). Bulk generate up to 500 at once.
- Lorem Ipsum Generator — Generate by paragraphs, words, sentences, or exact byte count.
Converters
- Unix Timestamp Converter — Live ticking epoch clock with auto-detection of seconds vs milliseconds. Quick presets for common dates.
Text & Design
- Word & Character Counter — Reading time, speaking time, keyword density analysis. Great for blog posts and SEO content.
- Color Picker & Converter — HEX/RGB/HSL/HSV with live two-way sync and built-in WCAG AA/AAA contrast checker.
Utility
- Online Clipboard — Share text between devices using a 6-digit code. Generates a QR code so you can scan it with your phone. Uses BroadcastChannel API for real-time multi-tab sync.
The "Why Client-Side" Decision
This was non-negotiable for me. Here's why:
When you paste a JWT token into most online decoders, that token travels to their server. Even if they promise they don't log it — you have no way to verify that.
With SnipTools, your data never leaves your browser. The hashing uses crypto.subtle (Web Crypto API). The Base64 encoding uses TextEncoder. The clipboard sharing uses localStorage and BroadcastChannel. There is literally no server endpoint that receives your data.
You can verify this yourself — open DevTools, go to the Network tab, paste sensitive data into any tool, and watch. Zero outbound requests.
What I Learned
The Web Crypto API is incredibly powerful — You can compute SHA-256 hashes, generate HMAC signatures, and create cryptographically secure random UUIDs without importing a single library.
Astro is perfect for tool sites — Each tool page is its own island. No shared client-side state means zero unnecessary JavaScript.
People care about privacy more than features — The #1 feedback I've gotten is "finally, a tool site I can trust with my data."
Try It Out
The whole thing is live at sniptoolkit.com.
If you have feedback, feature requests, or find a bug — I'd genuinely love to hear about it in the comments. I'm actively building new tools (a JWT decoder is next on the list).
If you found this useful, a ❤️ would really help other developers discover these tools. Thanks for reading!
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