The toolbox
Practical notes behind my self-hosted, open-source tools.
The toolbox
These are the notes for the small tools I build when software starts getting on my nerves. Useful, understandable things that do one job properly and keep your data close when they can.
Every page covers the useful bits: how do I use this?, what is it doing?, and how do I run my own copy? Expect quick starts, architecture notes, rough edges, and links to the code.
The toolbox
| Product | What it is | Status |
|---|---|---|
| OpenStream | Make your phone an OBS camera over Wi-Fi | Beta |
| HOLEN | Download things without handing them a profile | Active |
| Wisper Low | Dictation that keeps its ears on your machine | Prototype |
| cd | Send files browser-to-browser | Active |
| yt-cmd | A nicer front-end for the yt-dlp flag maze | Active |
| Img-gen | Remove backgrounds without uploading the image | Active |
| localhost | A tiny window into what is running at home | Live |
How to use these docs
If you just want to use something, start with Quick start and stop there. If you are curious about the implementation, How it works and Tech stack are the useful sections. If something breaks, jump straight to Troubleshooting before opening an issue.
The GitHub repository is still the final source of truth for release assets, exact dependency versions, and changes that have landed since these pages were written. I have linked the relevant repository, releases, issues, and important subdirectories on each page so you do not have to hunt for them.
The common ideas behind the projects
- Local first: camera streams, dictation, background removal, and downloads are designed to run on your device or your own network.
- Small surfaces: most of these products are thin layers over good existing tools such as OBS, WebRTC, ONNX Runtime Web, Whisper,
yt-dlp, and FFmpeg. - Useful fallbacks: when hardware acceleration, discovery, or a preferred runtime is unavailable, the apps try to provide a slower or more manual path.
- Honest status: these are personal products and some are still rough. The docs call out known limits instead of pretending everything is production-perfect.