The latest articles on Forem by Yahya Asloune (@aslouneyahya). https://forem.com/aslouneyahya https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F3733737%2F3dccf771-76aa-43dc-a7ac-f45795c3bcfd.jpeg https://forem.com/aslouneyahya en Yahya Asloune Mon, 26 Jan 2026 22:06:34 +0000 https://forem.com/aslouneyahya/i-built-a-privacy-focused-hcl-yaml-converter-because-i-dont-trust-servers-2of8 https://forem.com/aslouneyahya/i-built-a-privacy-focused-hcl-yaml-converter-because-i-dont-trust-servers-2of8 <p>Hello devs! 👋</p> <p>I'm an embedded systems student currently diving into DevOps. While learning Terraform, I kept needing to convert HCL to JSON or debug cron expressions.</p> <p>I found plenty of tools online, but they all had the same problem: <strong>they required sending my config files to a server.</strong></p> <p>I didn't feel comfortable pasting potential secrets into a random website, so I built my own client-side toolkit.</p> <h2> 🛠️ The Tool: <a href="https://techconverter.me" rel="noopener noreferrer">TechConverter.me</a> </h2> <p>It is a simple collection of utilities that run <strong>100% in your browser</strong>:</p> <ul> <li> <strong>HCL ↔ JSON ↔ YAML:</strong> Great for Terraform/Ansible users.</li> <li> <strong>Cron Debugger:</strong> Visualizes exactly when your cron job will run.</li> <li> <strong>JWT Decoder:</strong> Decodes tokens without verifying/sending them remotely.</li> <li> <strong>Netmask/CIDR Calc:</strong> For quick subnetting checks.</li> </ul> <h2> 🔒 How it works </h2> <p>The site is static. I used JavaScript libraries (like <code>hcl-to-json</code>) to handle everything locally. You can turn off your WiFi and it will still work.</p> <h2> 👨‍💻 Contributing </h2> <p>I'm still adding features. If you have a file format you hate converting manually, let me know in the comments and I'll try to add a parser for it!</p> <p>Link: <a href="https://techconverter.me" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://techconverter.me</a></p> devops terraform showdev webdev