Show HN: String.is – an open-source, privacy-friendly online string toolkit

I'm wary of using closed-source online string formatters and converters, so I've been working on https://string.is/ as a safe, open-source alternative. I had a couple of goals when building it:

1. It should be open-source.

2. It should not set any cookies.

3. It should have a strict Content Security Policy.

4. It should be opinionated about dependancies, and only use well-known, well-supported libraries.

5. It should try to detect the format of the input, and intelligently choose output options.

The last point in particular I feel is an improvement on most existing services - paste in some text and it will try to auto-detect the format and convert it accordingly (although admittedly detection of some formats is a bit primitive currently).

It's built with TypeScript + Next.js. In addition to the hosted version, the GitHub README has one-click install buttons for Vercel and Heroku, plus Docker images.

Source: https://github.com/recurser/string-is

Demo: https://string.is/ (click 'load an example' to get a random converter)

More info: https://string.is/about

There are a couple of other tools in this space if you're interested in alternatives:

  - https://gchq.github.io/CyberChef/ (online)
  - https://devutils.app/ by HN member trungdq88 (MacOS)
  - https://devtoys.app/ by HN member veler (Windows)
  - https://boop.okat.best/ (MacOS)

Great idea - I hadn't thought of diff. I'll have to have a think about how it might fit into the UI, since there's only one input box. Any ideas on what a good input flow might look like?

Looking at it again, string diff could probably just be a new mode. Since you already have the two input boxes on the left and right of them. Somehow reusing them to work as a diff? I'll make GH issue with a possible design