Neat Finds #01: Open Source Projects Worth Exploring
A few strange, clever, and useful things I found while wandering around GitHub.
I have a bad habit of opening GitHub to check one thing and leaving with twelve new tabs and ideas for three projects I definitely don't have time to build. This past month was particularly bad. Or good, depending on how you look at it.
So here's the first issue of Neat Finds, my occasional little zine of repositories that caught my attention. These aren't exhaustive reviews, and I haven't tested every feature. They're simply projects I enjoyed discovering, plus a few things I'd be tempted to make with them. No schedule for this series, just the good stuff whenever I find enough of it. :3
01. Soft Serve #
github.com/charmbracelet/soft-serve
A Git server you can visit over SSH, with a proper little terminal interface. This immediately made me think of a code clubhouse where friends could browse projects, swap small utilities, and leave the occasional text zine. Not everything needs a shiny website. Sometimes a door that opens with ssh is much more fun.
02. Bubble Tea #
github.com/charmbracelet/bubbletea
Bubble Tea is a Go framework for building terminal interfaces, and it makes the whole medium feel playful again. I'd use it for a tiny machine room: server status, SSH destinations, and a list of things I promised myself I'd fix. Three screens should be enough. I say that now.
03. Hurl #
github.com/Orange-OpenSource/hurl
HTTP requests and tests written in plain text, right beside your code. That is my kind of boring, and I mean that as praise. I can imagine a folder of small checks for feeds, redirects, Webmention endpoints, and odd ActivityPub responses. Much nicer than wondering which GUI workspace ate my requests.
04. VisiData #
A spreadsheet living happily in the terminal, ready for CSV, JSON, SQLite, Excel, and more. I often write little scripts just to inspect a dataset, then write another because I had a second question. VisiData lets curiosity come first. I'd throw old bookmarks, crawler results, and music catalogues at it immediately.
05. Difftastic #
Regular diffs tell you which lines changed. Difftastic pays attention to syntax, which is wonderfully helpful when formatting noise buries the actual edit. I'd also use it to keep a tiny development diary: a few meaningful before-and-after changes, saved for the day I reopen a project and ask myself what on earth happened.
06. mise #
I have enough old repositories to qualify as a minor archaeological site. mise manages language versions, project environments, and tasks, so returning to an experiment months later is less painful. My ideal setup is embarrassingly simple: install, run, test, publish. Four commands and a fighting chance of remembering how the thing works.
07. Glance #
A small self-hosted dashboard that can gather feeds, video updates, widgets, and server information in one place. I'd turn it into a personal morning paper: obscure blogs, a few server readings, and perhaps a widget that politely reminds me of a neglected project. Actually, it probably wouldn't be polite.
08. ArchiveBox #
github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox
Bookmarks remember addresses. ArchiveBox can preserve a little more of the page itself, which matters when a wonderful strange website vanishes. I'd build a cabinet of internet curiosities with one human note for every saved page: why it mattered, what it looked like, and how I found it. A private archive, not a public copy of somebody else's work.
09. changedetection.io #
github.com/dgtlmoon/changedetection.io
Some of my favorite websites update whenever their owners feel like it, and many have no RSS feed at all. changedetection.io watches pages for changes. I'd use it to catch a new paragraph in an old manifesto or a fresh page in a quiet web corner, not to panic every time a footer changes.
10. Beszel #
Server monitoring without turning your hobby into an air traffic control center. Beszel watches system and container metrics with lightweight agents, history, and alerts. I'd pair it with Glance and only surface problems I can actually fix. I do not need seventeen charts to tell me a log file filled the disk.
11. Pocket ID #
github.com/pocket-id/pocket-id
A self-hosted identity provider built around passkeys instead of traditional passwords. The nice idea here is making a bunch of small services feel like rooms in the same house. I would test it on a disposable lab first, though. Single sign-on stops being charming very quickly if you manage to lock yourself out of everything.
12. HomeBox #
github.com/sysadminsmedia/homebox
Home inventory sounds practical, maybe even a little dull, until you imagine a museum of old cameras, retired computers, and mysterious cables. HomeBox tracks objects and their details. I'd give every device a photo, a short biography, and a QR label. Somewhere in that collection is the adapter I've already purchased three times.
13. RomM #
RomM organizes retro game collections with artwork, metadata, and browser-play options. What caught my attention was the joy of browsing a collection, not just launching a game. That same idea would be lovely for old freeware, demoscene releases, public-domain magazines, or text adventures, with dates and stories attached. Share only material you're allowed to share, of course.
14. Bridgy Fed + Granary #
Two projects that remind me the internet can still have doors between its rooms. Bridgy Fed connects supported social networks and protocols; Granary translates social data formats. I'd love to publish on my own site first, then let compatible bridges carry the conversation elsewhere. My domain stays home. Everything else is a visiting address.
15. Indigo #
github.com/bluesky-social/indigo
Go libraries and services for exploring how AT Protocol works under the hood. I wouldn't begin by building the next social network. I'd make a tiny terminal viewer for public records, or a little event browser that explains what a relay is seeing. A smaller experiment teaches more than a heroic weekend rewrite of the whole internet.
16. Cocoon #
An AT Protocol Personal Data Server in Go with SQLite. Small, readable infrastructure is irresistible to me, especially when it handles something as ambitious as decentralized identity. The project describes itself as experimental, so I would keep it far away from important accounts. A throwaway PDS is still a great place to learn by breaking things.
17. Hollo #
A single-user ActivityPub server with Mastodon-compatible APIs. I love the scale of that: one person, one little address, and no need to operate a whole town square. I'd connect it to a personal blog, keep the presentation quiet, and use the fediverse for conversation instead of making the website depend on a social platform.
18. tootik #
This might be my favorite oddity here. tootik speaks ActivityPub but lets you read and interact through Gemini. A federated social experience without endless videos or loud interface tricks sounds pretty good to me. I'd borrow the idea for a very small reading room or invitation-based text community. More pen pals, fewer timelines.
19. gmid #
A Gemini server written in C, with virtual hosts and CGI/FastCGI support. There's something refreshing about software that begins with a modest promise and sticks to it. I'd start a capsule with notes, a reading shelf, and links to other capsules. The interesting challenge is how much personality you can fit into such a small space.
20. Amfora + Kristall #
Two very different ways to wander the smaller web. Amfora is a Gemini browser for the terminal, while Kristall brings Gemini, Gopher, and other protocols into a graphical client. They make me want to build a browser that records the path I took through strange little sites, like a travel diary for sleepless internet expeditions.
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From the archive A few more tabs I refuse to close: Ghostty · A terminal with thoughtful native design. act · Run many GitHub Actions jobs locally instead of collecting “fix ci” commits. gdu · Find the folder quietly eating your storage. gping · Make network latency visible as a little live graph. Miniflux · A wonderfully focused way to own your RSS reading. FreshRSS · Another excellent, more feature-rich self-hosted feed reader. Scrutiny · Keep an eye on disk health before trouble finds you. OpenSnitch · See and control which Linux applications reach out to the network. |
That's it for issue one. The most interesting thing about these projects is rarely the feature list. It's what happens when somebody reads the source, borrows a small idea, and makes something odd and personal out of it. Just check the licenses, and keep experimental things away from data you care about.
Found a strange repository, a forgotten tool, or a tiny piece of software I should see? Send it my way. I'd love to include reader suggestions in a future Neat Finds. And if you build something inspired by one of these, please show me. Those are my favorite links to open.
Happy wandering!
Pablo