Home Maker: Declare Your Dev Tools in a Makefile
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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 registry for all your local dev tools. It’s not a new framework or a heavy tool—just a simple way to organize the package managers we already use.If you're tired of losing track of your local environment, you might find it useful.
HN · launched Mar 29, 2026 · 91 upvotes (top 10%) · 0 views
Niche: software package managers · 51 launches, 1 in the last 7 days ▼ -89% · Explore this niche →
Category and tags
- Horizontal
- Dev tools
- Developer
- Not AI
- Hobby / open-source project
Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗
More like this: all 51 launches in software package managers →
Could you build this?
Yes It is essentially a Makefile template paired with shell scripts to manage CLI tool installations across different package managers.
Discussion
20 comments analyzed.
Competitors mentioned: asdf, Homebrew, Nix, devbox, Justfiles
Concerns raised: Complex plugin creation for tools without existing backends, Steep learning curve compared to asdf, Requires understanding Nix syntax and behavior, Manual tool addition required, no auto-discovery, Fragmented installation backends and unclear documentation
Feature requests: Auto-discovery/scanning of installed tools, Simplified plugin creation process, Better documentation for adding new tools
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one : 368 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #53 of 369 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 150 days after the earliest competitor.
- toolspace · ph · 2026-10-25 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.46
- DevKit Forge — Developer Toolbox · ph · 2026-10-27 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.46
- MakeMe · hn · 2026-01-07 · 6 upvotes · similarity 0.46
- Github-workflow · ph · 2026-10-12 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.46
- Devtoolry · ph · 2026-11-03 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.46
- Keystone · hn · 2026-02-18 · 12 upvotes · similarity 0.45
- DevOS — Tools for developers · ph · 2026-10-30 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.45
- I rebuilt the only parts of my IDE I use, in Rust, over a weekend · hn · 2026-06-22 · 50 upvotes · similarity 0.44
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