Every December, millions of people count down to Christmas with advent calendars. This year, I'm doing something different β building 25 free developer tools, one for each day leading up to Christmas.
It started as a challenge: Can I ship a useful tool every single day for 25 days?
Not complex SaaS products. Not half-baked prototypes. Real, genuinely useful micro-tools that solve specific problems developers face every day.
I call it Ship Advent β an advent calendar for developers. π
The 25 Tools
Instead of one big app, Ship Advent is a collection of 25 small tools spread across debugging, formatting, learning, and career. Some examples from the calendar include:
- Duck Duck Code β A virtual rubber duck debugger where you explain your bug and get structured help.
- Caffeine Calculator β A caffeine timing helper to maximize focus without wrecking sleep.
- Request Tester β A curl-like HTTP client in the browser for quickly testing endpoints.
- Load Tester β A simple way to hammer your API or middleware and see how it holds up.
- Regex Tester β Real-time pattern testing for regular expressions.
- JSON Formatter & Validator β Pretty-print and validate JSON payloads.
- JWT Decoder β Safely decode and inspect JSON Web Tokens.
- Code Diff Viewer β Highlight changes between two code snippets.
- Import Dependency Checker β Paste code and see what you're actually importing and not using.
- Git Command Cheat Sheet β Fast, searchable git commands with copy-to-clipboard.
- Resume & Portfolio tools β Generate a CV layout, a simple portfolio site, and even a tailored cover letter.
The exact order and some of the tools will stay under wraps to preserve the "what's behind today's door?" feeling, but the overall mix is public: early days focus on foundation tools like regex, JSON, and tokens, the middle of the month leans into debugging and indie dev utilities, and the final stretch is all about careers, job search, and polishing your public presence.
A handful of tools use AI/LLMs (like Duck Duck Code, the MVP idea validator, and the cover letter generator), and those require a free account to keep usage under control. Most tools, however, work completely anonymously, with login only needed if you want to save history or preferences.
Why Free?
Ship Advent is primarily a craft and consistency challenge, not a monetization experiment. The tools are free to use, with no trials, paywalls, or premium tiers.
The only gate is login for a few AI-heavy tools and any cases where your data needs to be stored securely (like tracking job applications or saving your portfolio). The goal is to build trust by shipping useful things every day, collect honest feedback, and see which small tools "stick" and deserve more investment next year.
The best tools are the ones that just work. No friction, no rubbish.
The 25-Day Build Challenge
To keep this sustainable alongside everything else happening in December, each tool is scoped to be shippable in hours each day. That means:
- β Actually useful β solves a real problem each day.
- β Simple β does one thing well.
- β Fast β no unnecessary loading spinners.
- β Festive β a clean, Christmas-themed design.
- β Shippable in a day β strict scope, no feature creep.
Some of the bigger daysβlike Duck Duck Code, the MVP validator, the portfolio generator, or the job trackerβare reserved for when there's more time. The rest of the calendar is filled with smaller wins that still feel surprisingly useful in daily dev life.
This mix of small and large tools keeps the project realistic while still giving certain days a "wow" factor.
Follow Along
During December, Ship Advent will be updated every day with a new tool. You can:
- Visit shipadvent.com daily to open that day's "door" and try the tool.
- Follow daily announcements and screenshots on Twitter/X and Reddit.
- Watch progress posts and halfway check-ins on LinkedIn, especially around the middle of the month when many tools are already live.
Feedback is encouraged: each tool has an easy way to send suggestions, report bugs, or request related features. The best feedback will shape which tools receive upgrades and which ideas might become fully fledged products in the future.
Bookmark the calendar, check back daily, and let me know which tools you're most excited about.
Here's to shipping fast, building useful things, and making this December a little more productive for developers everywhere. π
Happy holidays, and happy coding! π