ToolBrigadeToolBrigade

How tool suggestions get picked

An honest explanation of how I decide which tools to build next.

There's no roadmap, no product committee, and no algorithm. Here's how it actually works:

I build tools when I need them myself, or when enough people ask for the same thing that it's clearly a gap worth filling. The “enough people” threshold is fuzzy — sometimes one very specific, well-explained suggestion is enough if it's clearly useful and feasible to build client-side.

What makes a suggestion more likely to get built:

  • It can be done entirely in the browser without a server (this is a hard constraint — ToolBrigade doesn't have a processing backend)
  • Multiple people have asked for the same thing
  • The use case is specific and practical, not vague (“a tool that converts X to Y for Z purpose” beats “more tools”)
  • There's no good existing free alternative that doesn't require an account or upload

What makes a suggestion less likely:

  • It requires server-side processing (OCR, AI, video encoding, etc.) — these can't be done client-side
  • It's a very niche use case that only one person would ever use
  • A good free tool already exists that doesn't require an account

I don't promise to build anything. I don't have a timeline. But I do read every suggestion, and the ones that keep coming up get built eventually.

If you have an idea, use the suggestion form.