Neat Finds #01: Open Source Projects Worth Exploring

[37m╶── [97mgemlog[90m · 2026-10-20[0m

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 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, and a door that opens with ssh is a lot 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, living in the repo instead of in some GUI workspace that eventually eats them.

04\. VisiData

github.com/saulpw/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. Old bookmarks, crawler results and music catalogues would be the first things I throw at it.

05\. Difftastic

github.com/Wilfred/difftastic

Regular diffs tell you which lines changed. Difftastic pays attention to syntax, which helps a lot when formatting noise buries the actual edit. I'd also use it to keep a tiny development diary with a few before-and-after changes worth keeping, saved for the day I reopen a project and ask myself what on earth happened.

06\. mise

github.com/jdx/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

github.com/glanceapp/glance

A small self-hosted dashboard that can gather feeds, video updates, widgets, and server information in one place. Mine would be a personal morning paper with obscure blogs, a few server readings, and perhaps a widget that reminds me of a neglected project.

08\. ArchiveBox

github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox

Bookmarks remember addresses. ArchiveBox can preserve a little more of the page itself, which helps when a wonderful strange website vanishes. I'd build a cabinet of internet curiosities with one human note for every saved page, saying why it mattered and how I found it. I'd keep that cabinet private, though, since the pages are still 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, and I'd set it up so it doesn't panic every time a footer changes.

10\. Beszel

github.com/henrygd/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, because single sign-on stops being charming very quickly if you 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. Every device would get a photo, a short biography and a QR label. Somewhere in that collection is the adapter I've already purchased three times.

13\. RomM

github.com/rommapp/romm

RomM organizes retro game collections with artwork, metadata, and browser-play options. What caught my attention was how pleasant it makes browsing the collection itself. 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

Bridgy Fed · Granary

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.

15\. Indigo

github.com/bluesky-social/indigo

Go libraries and services for exploring how AT Protocol works under the hood. I'd start small, with a tiny terminal viewer for public records or a little event browser that explains what a relay is seeing.

16\. Cocoon

github.com/haileyok/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 and use a throwaway PDS to learn by breaking things.

17\. Hollo

github.com/fedify-dev/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

github.com/dimkr/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.

19\. gmid

github.com/omar-polo/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.

20\. Amfora + Kristall

Amfora · Kristall

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.

Bonus tabs

A few more tabs I refuse to close:

Ghostty: a terminal that feels native on each system.

Ghostty

act: run many GitHub Actions jobs locally instead of collecting “fix ci” commits.

act

gdu: find the folder quietly eating your storage.

gdu

gping: make network latency visible as a little live graph.

gping

Miniflux: a focused way to own your RSS reading.

Miniflux

FreshRSS: a more feature-rich self-hosted feed reader.

FreshRSS

Scrutiny: keep an eye on disk health before trouble finds you.

Scrutiny

OpenSnitch: see and control which Linux applications reach out to the network.

OpenSnitch

That's it for issue one. What I like most about projects like these is what happens after someone reads the source, borrows a small idea and turns it into something odd and personal. 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.

Happy wandering!

Pablo

[37m──╴ [90mend of transmission[0m

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