Case study

devtools2025

gif-my-code

The only free CLI tool that creates animated code GIFs with line highlighting. 250+ language support via Chroma auto-detection, laser-reveal and typing animations, customisable speed, and full scriptability for CI/CD pipelines. Competes with paid tools like Snappify ($5-30/mo) at zero cost.

Building the tools that build the tools

Field notes

Role

Creator

Read order

Evidence first, then constraint → build → proof. Use the chapter rail to jump sections; orbit to adjacent work from the bottom of the case study.

DevTools Arsenal✦II-Class Star

📦OPEN SOURCE

View on GitHub

View Source Code

Evidence

System surface

No public screenshot on file, generative preview stands in for the visual layer.

Signature viewpreview

Story arc

How this shipped

Building the tools that build the toolsThree beats: what pressed against the work, how the stack answered, and what changed once it was live.

I · Constraint

The brief

Creating beautiful animated code demos for Twitter, READMEs, and docs required expensive SaaS tools or manual screen recording. No free CLI alternative existed.

II · Build

The craft

Built Go CLI with Chroma for 250+ language syntax highlighting and auto-detection from file extensions. Laser-reveal and typing animations with configurable speed. Fully scriptable for CI/CD.

III · Proof

What moved after launch

Free alternative to $5-30/mo paid tools. 250+ languages covered. CLI-first design enables automated GIF generation in CI pipelines and documentation workflows.

Inventory

Stack & signals

GoCLIDeveloper Tools

Tell me what you're building

If you need someone who can own UI, systems, and AI integration without losing the plot, I'm listening. Contract, advisory, or full-time: we'll find the right shape.

Start a Conversation See More Projects

Related work

Signal = how many tags a project shares with this one.

Same clustersignal 3

Signal: Medium

CLIDeveloper Tools

hq

Personal dev-ops CLI that aggregates live state across ~90 repos and the services behind them (GitHub, Vercel, Sentry, Stripe, Notion, ClickUp, UptimeRobot, Railway, Jira) into work contexts, surfacing only what is broken, blocking, or worth attention. No dashboards, just the next thing to do.

Same clustersignal 3

Signal: Medium

CLIDeveloper Tools

ccscope

Attributes Claude Code token cost to individual skills, MCP servers, and plugins, then surfaces the ones not earning their context budget so you can trim them.

Same clustersignal 2

Signal: Low

Developer Tools

Claude Continuity Kit

Session continuity tooling for Claude Code to maintain context across sessions.

Keep exploring

Previous Project

recall

Local, privacy-first search engine over your Claude Code transcripts. Find past decisions, approaches, and dead ends across every prior session without anything leaving your machine.

Next Project

Repro-in-a-Box

Autonomous QA agent that finds bugs on your site, captures reproducible evidence (HAR files + screenshots), validates reproducibility, and integrates with Claude Desktop via MCP. 7 built-in detectors: JavaScript errors, network failures, broken assets, WCAG 2.1 accessibility, Core Web Vitals, mixed content, and broken links. 170 tests, 85% coverage.

Case study

devtools2025

gif-my-code

Building the tools that build the tools

Field notes

Role

Creator

Read order

Evidence first, then constraint → build → proof. Use the chapter rail to jump sections; orbit to adjacent work from the bottom of the case study.

DevTools Arsenal✦II-Class Star

📦OPEN SOURCE

View on GitHub

View Source Code

Evidence

System surface

No public screenshot on file, generative preview stands in for the visual layer.

Signature viewpreview

Story arc

How this shipped

Building the tools that build the toolsThree beats: what pressed against the work, how the stack answered, and what changed once it was live.

I · Constraint

The brief

Creating beautiful animated code demos for Twitter, READMEs, and docs required expensive SaaS tools or manual screen recording. No free CLI alternative existed.

II · Build

The craft

Built Go CLI with Chroma for 250+ language syntax highlighting and auto-detection from file extensions. Laser-reveal and typing animations with configurable speed. Fully scriptable for CI/CD.

III · Proof

What moved after launch

Free alternative to $5-30/mo paid tools. 250+ languages covered. CLI-first design enables automated GIF generation in CI pipelines and documentation workflows.

Inventory

Stack & signals

GoCLIDeveloper Tools

Tell me what you're building

If you need someone who can own UI, systems, and AI integration without losing the plot, I'm listening. Contract, advisory, or full-time: we'll find the right shape.

Start a Conversation See More Projects

Related work

Signal = how many tags a project shares with this one.

Same clustersignal 3

Signal: Medium

CLIDeveloper Tools

hq

Same clustersignal 3

Signal: Medium

CLIDeveloper Tools

ccscope

Attributes Claude Code token cost to individual skills, MCP servers, and plugins, then surfaces the ones not earning their context budget so you can trim them.

Same clustersignal 2

Signal: Low

Developer Tools

Claude Continuity Kit

Session continuity tooling for Claude Code to maintain context across sessions.

Keep exploring

Previous Project

recall

Local, privacy-first search engine over your Claude Code transcripts. Find past decisions, approaches, and dead ends across every prior session without anything leaving your machine.

Next Project