Encode

A devtools toolkit for checking, validating, generating, formatting, linting, explaining, converting, templating, diffing, previewing, fixing, and reporting on encoded data — all from the command line.

Commands

Each domain command (check, validate, generate, etc.) works in two modes:

• Without arguments: displays the 20 most recent entries from that category
• With arguments: logs a new timestamped entry and shows the running total

Data Storage

All data is stored locally in ~/.local/share/encode/. Each command writes to its own log file (e.g., check.log, validate.log, convert.log) and a shared history.log tracks all activity with timestamps. No cloud sync, no external API calls — everything stays on your machine.

Requirements

• Bash 4+ (uses set -euo pipefail)
• Standard Unix utilities: date, wc, du, grep, head, tail, basename
• No external dependencies or API keys required

When to Use

1. Debugging encoded API payloads — Use check and validate to verify base64 or URL-encoded strings, explain to understand the encoding structure, and fix to log corrections
2. Converting between encoding formats — Use convert to track format conversions (base64 ↔ URL encoding ↔ HTML entities) and diff to compare before/after results
3. Building encoding pipelines — Use template to define reusable encoding patterns, generate to produce encoded output, and format to ensure consistent presentation
4. Code review and linting — Use lint to record encoding issues found during review, preview to verify decoded output, and report to summarize findings for the team
5. Maintaining an encoding operations log — Use stats to see how many encoding operations you've performed, search to find specific entries, and export to back up your history

Examples

# Check if a base64 string is valid
encode check "SGVsbG8gV29ybGQ= — valid base64, decodes to Hello World"

# Validate URL encoding
encode validate "%E4%BD%A0%E5%A5%BD — valid UTF-8 URL encoding for 你好"

# Convert between formats
encode convert "base64 to hex: SGVsbG8= → 48656c6c6f"

# Lint for common issues
encode lint "Found double-encoded URL: %2520 should be %20"

# Explain an encoding format
encode explain "JWT token structure: header.payload.signature, each base64url"

# Generate encoded output
encode generate "URL-encode query params: name=张三&city=北京"

# Diff two encoded values
encode diff "v1: dXNlcg== vs v2: YWRtaW4= — different decoded values"

# Export all data to JSON
encode export json

# View statistics
encode stats

How It Works

Encode uses a simple append-only log architecture. Each command appends a timestamped, pipe-delimited entry (YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM|value) to its category-specific log file. The stats command aggregates line counts across all logs, search runs case-insensitive grep across all files, and export serializes everything into your chosen format (JSON, CSV, or plain text). The status command gives a quick system health overview including version, total entries, disk usage, and last activity timestamp.

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