Skip to main content
Elizabeth Stein
DevTools ArsenalOpen to workHomeWorkAboutContact

Case study

devtools2026

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.

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·✦III-Class Dwarf
17 tests passing

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

Months of Claude Code sessions hold useful reasoning, but it is trapped in plaintext logs with no way to search across them.

II · Build

The craft

Built a local search index over the transcript files so past sessions are queryable, entirely on-device with no cloud upload.

III · Proof

What moved after launch

Past reasoning becomes searchable in seconds. 17 tests. Privacy-first: transcripts never leave the machine.

Engine room

At a glance

0
Tests

Inventory

Stack & signals

TypeScriptCLISearchLocal-first
← Project archive

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 ConversationSee More Projects

Related work

Same clustersignal 3
Signal: Medium
TypeScriptCLI

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
TypeScriptCLI

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 3
Signal: Medium
CLITypeScript

Ally A11y CLI

The only accessibility CLI with real-time auto-fix and impact scoring. Published on npm as ally-a11y with MIT license, GitHub Actions CI/CD, and codecov integration.

Keep exploring

Previous Project

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.

Next Project

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.

© 2026 Elizabeth Stein

·Contact·Privacy
Let's work together → GitHubLinkedIn

Built with Next.js, Three.js, and obsessive attention to detail.