Ask HN: What developer tool do you wish existed in 2026?

#1

Post by allenleee » Sun, Dec 21, 2025, 4:12 PM UTC

I’m looking for ideas to build and open-source.

Curious what problems you expect to matter in the next couple of years.

Thx!

Re: Ask HN: What developer tool do you wish existed in 2026?

#2

Post by markus_zhang » Sun, Dec 21, 2025, 4:27 PM UTC

One thing I want: something like a function call graph: you load some source code files, open a function in window A (windows A now shows Only this function with all functions calls and structs highlighted). Click on any function call then the callee shows up in a new window with proper highlighting. Click on a struct object it immediately shows the struct def in a panel stick to the bottom of the screen.

Essentially, it’s like VSCode Peek definition but with a different visual style, and similar to the same functionality of source insight but free and in Linux.

The purpose is to read xv6 source code. I have found some parts of the kernel, e.g. the file system to be convoluted, and I need to follow quite a few jumps to form the system mindset. Having such a small tool is very helpful.

Actually it doesn’t look too hard to implement. Maybe I’ll write it myself in QT.

Re: Ask HN: What developer tool do you wish existed in 2026?

#3

Post by KomoD » Sun, Dec 21, 2025, 10:01 PM UTC

Temporary ssh containers, I just want to ssh (some id)@(container host), spin up a lxc container or firecracker microvm, it attaches to it.

When I exit the ssh session, it terminates (or "pauses").

I've wanted to make it for a while but never got around to it.

Re: Ask HN: What developer tool do you wish existed in 2026?

#4

Post by taurath » Mon, Dec 22, 2025, 1:40 AM UTC

Planners. Something to help me make sense of what my priorities are during the day. Something to help me determine what needs my attention.

I have a lot of systems, but I could really use a Jarvis at work right now and it seems like the whole damn promise of AI is to deliver that. I’m waiting.

Re: Ask HN: What developer tool do you wish existed in 2026?

#5

Post by ValtteriL » Mon, Dec 22, 2025, 5:52 AM UTC

KomoD wrote: post #3

Temporary ssh containers, I just want to ssh (some id)@(container host), spin up a lxc container or firecracker microvm, it attaches to it. When I exit the ssh session, it terminates (or "pauses"). I've wanted to make it for a while but never got around to it.

You can get such disposable shell in k8s with a command like:

kubectl run -i --tty --rm debug --image=busybox --restart=Never -- sh

Doesn't use ssh though.

Re: Ask HN: What developer tool do you wish existed in 2026?

#6

Post by cik » Mon, Dec 22, 2025, 8:54 AM UTC

KomoD wrote: post #3

Temporary ssh containers, I just want to ssh (some id)@(container host), spin up a lxc container or firecracker microvm, it attaches to it. When I exit the ssh session, it terminates (or "pauses"). I've wanted to make it for a while but never got around to it.

Unless I'm missing it, the linuxserver have a container you can use. There's also containerssh (which I use all the time)

https://hub.docker.com/r/linuxserver/openssh-server

https://hub.docker.com/r/containerssh/containerssh

Re: Ask HN: What developer tool do you wish existed in 2026?

#7

Post by WilcoKruijer » Mon, Dec 22, 2025, 9:14 AM UTC

markus_zhang wrote: post #2

One thing I want: something like a function call graph: you load some source code files, open a function in window A (windows A now shows Only this function with all functions calls and structs highlighted). Click on any function call then the callee shows up in a new window with proper highlighting. Click on a struct object it immediately shows the struct def in a panel stick to the bottom of the screen. Essentially…

I experimented with this idea a couple years ago, using the Language Server Protocol to make it some what universal. The output gets messy pretty quickly, maybe these days an LLM could be used to only show the interesting calls.