fatcousinmanifesto

most tools on the internet suck.

we don't mean fatcousin. we mean the generic utility software you bump into out in the wild. the upload-your-file-as-step-one apps. the account walls. the “free trials” that aren't free.

• they're slow.
• they're bloated.
• they ask you to upload your files like that's normal.
• they gatekeep the basics behind logins and subscriptions.

fatcousin doesn't do that.

tools should work instantly, locally, and without friction.

• no accounts.
• no waiting.
• no sending your data somewhere you can't see.

your files stay on your device.

every single-user tool here runs inside your browser. nothing uploads. nothing phones home. once the page loads, processing happens entirely on your machine — there is no “server side” involved in the work.

don't trust us. verify it. open devtools, watch the network tab, drop a file in. you'll see what we sent you, and nothing going back. that's the contract.

• if it can run in your browser, it should.
• if it can be faster, it will be.
• if it needs your data, we question it.

p2p tools work differently — see section 04.

p2p tools: files move between you — not through us.

the p2p tools — chat, file transfer, video, canvas, audio — work differently from single-user tools. your files never leave your browser. they travel directly between two devices over an encrypted WebRTC data channel.

to connect two browsers, they need to find each other first. that handshake — called “signaling” — passes a few bytes of connection metadata through a fatcousin server. it is the only thing that touches our server. file contents, messages, and media never do.

• signaling payload: session code + connection coordinates. nothing else.
• once connected, the server is out of the loop entirely.
• sessions are ephemeral — nothing is stored or logged after the handshake completes.

don't trust us. verify it. open devtools and watch what actually moves through the network tab.

phone, tablet, laptop, desktop. same toolbox.

every tool works the same on your phone as on a desktop. no “lite” version. no “open this on a computer to use this feature”. if your phone runs a browser, it runs fatcousin at full strength.

install it as an app and it keeps working offline. everything you need is already on the device.

errors get reported, not your data.

when tools break, we capture the error automatically — no personal data, no file contents, just the technical details needed to fix it. you can see exactly what we send by opening the report before you submit.

same contract as everything else here. “don't trust us, verify it” applies to bug reports too.

• browser, tool name, error message.
• file names and sizes only — never contents.
• no identity, no tracking, no cookies.