Dev tools · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to Home Maker: Declare Your Dev Tools in a Makefile
A developer's machine accumulates tools fast. A Rust CLI you compiled last year, a Python formatter installed via `uv`, a language server pulled from npm, a terminal emulator from a curl script, a Go binary built from source. Each came from a different package manager, each with its own install incantation you half-remember. I wanted a way to declare what I need without adopting a complex system like Nix or Ansible just for a single laptop. The result was a plain old Makefile. I wrote a short post on using Make (along with a tiny bash script and fzf) to create a searchable, single-command…
Home Maker is a Makefile-based approach for declaring and managing developer tools across multiple package managers. It allows developers to create a searchable, single-command registry for local dev tools—combining… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Prices are shown for the 1 we have checked on their own sites, 1 of them free or with a free tier.
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Devbox is a command-line tool that lets you easily create isolated shells and containers. You start by defining the list of packages required by your development environment, and devbox uses that definition to create an isolated environment just for your application. In practice, Devbox works similar to a package manager like yarn – except the packages it manages are at the operating-system level (the sort of thing you would normally install with brew or apt-get). See it in action: https://youtu.be/WMBaXQZmDoA
2022 · github.com · its alternatives →
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`makedown` allows you to organise your shell scripts in one or several markdown files, by mix and matching different scripting languages for various commands and needs. zsh/bash/sh, python, javascript or anything else available on your system. Handy for replacing one-line-based package.json scripts or shell-based Makefiles. One can also write documentation and explanations to various commands in the same `.md` file. Most editors highlight correctly most languages in the markdown code blocks, even when you use several scripting languages. Here is a demo .md file…
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Seamlessly manage Python virtual environment with a Makefile - sio/Makefile.venv
2019 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Your very own offline-first privacy-centric open-source data-center! https://homelabos.com/
2018 · gitlab.com · its alternatives →
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Keystone▲125We kept hitting the same wall: you clone some arbitrary repo and just want it to run without any configuration work. So we built Keystone, an open source tool that spins up a Modal sandbox, runs Claude Code inside it, and produces a working .devcontainer/ config (Dockerfile, devcontainer.json, test runner) for any git repo. We build on the dev container standard, so the output works with VS Code and GitHub Codespaces out of the box. Main use cases: reproducible dev/CI environments, self-describing repos, and safely sandboxed coding agents. Our goal is to encourage all repos to…
Mar 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
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I've been frustrated with dependency hell and clutter on my VPS from dev, so I built Devbox: a lightweight, open-source CLI tool that spins up isolated development environments using Docker. Each project runs in its own container, but your code stays in simple flat folders on the host machine—no messing with volumes or sync issues. Environments are disposable, so you can nuke and recreate them without losing your work. Key features: - Instant setup: `devbox init my-project` and you're in a fresh env with `devbox shell`. - Configurable via JSON: Define packages, services, and more in a…
2025 · devbox.ar0.eu · its alternatives →
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Generic drop in Makefile. GitHub Gist: instantly share code, notes, and snippets.
2023 · gist.github.com · its alternatives →
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I know this could be considered blasphemous, but I constantly find myself using Make as a task runner. I have written my own task runner in the past, but somehow I always end up using make. I went, and I put together 3 quality of life snippets I use all the time and put it in a single makext.mk file that can be included in other Makefiles and wrote a basic readme for it. This is not meant to be a replacement for other task runners, but I do think it can be useful to some of you. https://github.com/mitjafelicijan/makext Check it out and see if it makes sense to you. Thanks…
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Create a new production-ready project by one CLI command
2021 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Boxes.devfree tier, from $19/mo▲112Hi HN, we’re Nick and Drew, and we’re building boxes.dev – the first cloud-only agentic dev environment (ADE) that gives every Codex and Claude Code agent its own cloud computer. We’re two engineers who previously built Gem (co-founder/CTO and first hire), and we spent the last year coding almost exclusively using Codex and Claude Code. It’s been a huge change to how we code, and it’s been exhilarating seeing the models keep getting better – but we eventually realized that developing on localhost was holding us back: - Git worktrees are clunky to set up and use for parallelizing work -…
Jun 2026 · boxes.dev · its alternatives →
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Makey▲24Centralize your Makefile Command Execution
2024 · marketplace.visualstudio.com · its alternatives →
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makejinja can be used to automatically generate files from Jinja templates. This allows you to load variables from external files or create repeating patterns via loops. A very interesting use case for this tool is generating config files for Home Assistant: Using the same language that the built-in templates use, you can greatly simplify your configuration. When creating for example dashboards, it allows you to create a view for each room based on a single common template, dramatically reducing the maintenance overhead of complex dashboards. I originally developed this for my smarthome…
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Cross-compile software using our pre-built toolchains
2024 · rstream.io · its alternatives →
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Netmaker makes networks with WireGuard. Netmaker automates fast, secure, and distributed virtual networks. - netmaker/LICENSE.md at master · gravitl/netmaker
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
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:whale: Containerize your development workflow. Contribute to binci/binci development by creating an account on GitHub.
2015 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Title says all that needs to said about it, admittedly it is stupid to "copy" any Windows feature in Linux but here we are...it is not exactly made for use by extensive audience but just a rough work of it would love any suggestion/critique on it ...
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Your A.I. powered TikTok assistant. Tell Stormy what type of video you want to make and Stormy will use artificial intelligence to write you a brand new video script the world has never seen before.
2020 · stormyapp.com · its alternatives →
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Buildfiles: Ansible automated leight-weight and sensible Debian provisioning - cytopia/ansible-debian
2017 · github.com · its alternatives →
Also compare
- Devbox – Easy, predictable shells and containers alternatives
- Make alternatives
- Tools for Makers alternatives
- Makedown – A Markdown powered Makefile alternative alternatives
- Manage Python Virtual Environment with a Makefile alternatives
- HomelabOS – Ansible scripts to deploy self hosted cloud services alternatives
Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →