the studio
A tiny studio with a night shift.
trolls.dev is an independent software studio. We build our own products and handle their support and maintenance. The studio is self-funded, and we plan to keep it small.
why trolls?
The work happens while the world sleeps
In the old stories, the little folk slip into the workshop at night and finish the shoemaker's work by morning. We liked that image for a studio where much of the work happens late at night.
Our products began as things we wanted for ourselves. Since we're also the people maintaining them, we have to be selective about what we start. A new product means work long after its first release.
how we work
Six things we believe
These rules of thumb help us decide what to build and how to look after it.
- 01
Build for ourselves first
Every product starts as something we want to use ourselves. Using it regularly helps us notice what's awkward or missing.
- 02
Keep the scope small
Each product has a specific job. We consider a new feature when it helps with that job and leave unrelated work to other tools.
- 03
Ship small, ship often
We release small changes and watch how people use them. That gives us feedback while there's still time to change direction.
- 04
Run what we ship
We handle support and maintenance for everything we release. We have to live with the technical choices we make during development.
- 05
Respect the user's attention
People come to a product to get something done. We care about loading time, readable text, and how many steps the task takes.
- 06
Stay tiny on purpose
We're self-funded and plan to keep the team small. That limits how much we can take on, so we choose our projects carefully.
The longer versions live in our notes from the night shift.
Struck by the night shift · house standing
colophon
How this site is made
The tools and design choices behind the pages you're reading.
- Framework
- Astro renders the pages to HTML at build time. JavaScript handles features such as the theme switch and animations.
- Styling
- Tailwind CSS with cream and navy backgrounds and blue accents. The moon button in the header switches between light and dark themes.
- Type
- Fraunces for display headings, with system sans and monospace fonts for body text and labels.
- Social cards
- Satori generates the Open Graph images at build time for previews when someone shares a page.
- Syndication
- The RSS feed includes the full text of each note. llms.txt provides a site index for AI tools.
- Mascots
- The trolls are our mascots. You'll find them working at laptops, making plans, and peeking over the edges of pages.
See what the night shift made
Browse the products or read about the decisions behind them.