A README for Indie Developers
Continuing from the previous post, many people asked what kind of stuff I was on that made me write like that. Today I will answer the question from the curious audience. And yes, this article is proudly sponsored by LLM, a small joke, so take it lightly and enjoy the read.
Last week I finished testing the first stage of cron scheduling and routing. Everything went well. The release v1 is almost ready and the roadmap is nearly complete. I do not call it an MVP. It is release v1.
Creative Rituals and Afternoon Inspiration
Every afternoon I sip a small 90 ml espresso or a latte from Highlands Coffee. When the first sip hits, the sunlight stretches across the traffic lanes, weaving through buildings, and the mind of a developer feels like neatly arranged strings helping the world move forward.
Cars flow past the intersection of Hùng Vương and Lê Lợi in Tam Kỳ. Inside the café sits a small soul carrying a dream of technological independence. Across the street is the digital library of Quảng Nam University, where that younger version of me once lived, studied and dreamed.
Almost ten years ago, when I first touched C#, DevExpress and WinForm, I woke up every morning without needing motivation from money or ambition. I simply sat at the desk and coded. Arrays, DevExpress, WinForm, everything was new and exciting. That dream was built from reading clean VB code rewritten into C# by anh Thảo Meo.
Ten years passed like a soft dream. Now at thirty, halfway through life, I have learned to stand back up after a fall, to know humility and respect, to know the vastness of the sky and sea. Everyone begins their dream somewhere.
Indie Projects and Growing Up
In 2020 my startup collapsed. I returned to Tam Kỳ with nothing but a dream of tech independence and Golang. I only knew how to use frameworks without understanding the foundations. I wrote code because the framework told me how.
So I decided to start over from the basics. From string to []byte to runes. Understanding references. Writing my own template engine. My own pipe functions. Every line of code and every small experiment became a lesson.
I built and tested more than twenty tiny websites, all running on a VPS with 1 core, 2 GB RAM and 20 GB of disk. Some sites reached top rankings with high traffic but failed just as quickly. Revenue was small and payouts were slow.
No project succeeded one hundred percent and no project failed one hundred percent. There was only fail, learn, get back up. That mindset became the foundation of KitWork.
The biggest lesson was simple: you only fail when you refuse to learn something new, like a bird staying inside its cage because the outside world feels unfamiliar.
Thoughts on Dev Work, SEO and Experience
I used to write a lot of things. People said do not reinvent the wheel. Others said your work is just a grain of sand in the desert. But we are not born understanding other people’s words. We only grow by falling and standing again.
SEO was another important experience. It is not just numbers. It is the ability to translate something complex into something simple so others can understand and pass it on.
KitWork: A Tool for Developers and Workflow Lovers
KitWork is not just a README file. It is a real tool for developers. If you are a dev, you might want a tool for
Workflow management
Fast template deployment
Deploying without Docker or complex environments
KitWork was born from ideas around serverless functions and GitHub Actions. I tested Vercel Functions, Cloudflare Worker, Firebase Functions, DigitalOcean Functions but they all felt too complex. My stack for deploying templates only required editing code or copying a file, just like serving a static file.
Why not build it that way? Why not make a system that anyone can use, lightweight, fast and easy to deploy?
Benefits of KitWork
Single binary that runs instantly without Docker, Node or a database
Config driven workflows, API, cron and scraping all in one YAML or JSON file
Great for indie developers, startups and SMEs who want fast and flexible deployment
Open source so anyone can contribute and extend
You can try KitWork now at kitwork.io or explore demos on GitHub.
The Market KitWork Serves
KitWork is built for
Independent developers
Small startup teams
Indie creators
Anyone who wants simple workflow management and painless serverless style deployment
This market is exploding. Developers need flexibility, accessible tools and solutions that do not require Docker or heavyweight cloud stacks.
Why the market needs KitWork
Many developers and small businesses are limited by complex stacks that make job automation heavy and slow
Indie devs, startups and SMEs worldwide need lightweight, easy to use, self host tools
KitWork helps developers move freely, build faster and reduce cost and overhead
You can download the binary directly at ./kitwork-win.exe or ./kitwork-linux and try immediately.
Imagining the Future
I imagine a world where every developer, whether solo or in a small startup, can automate everything scraping, cron jobs, pipelines, serverless API tasks with one config file and one binary.
KitWork is the tool I want to play with powerful, simple, free. It is a solution for indie devs, small teams and SMEs to deploy workflows freely with less overhead, more speed and more flexibility. It is strong and simple at the same time, suitable for both experimentation and production. kitwork.io
Notes
Article posted in 2025 and reposted
AI-powered translation
Read the original Vietnamese version here: https://hnq.vn/blog/open-tu-duy-chi-don-gian-bang-file-readme
More about me
Blog: huynhnhanquoc.com
GitHub: github.com/huynhnhanquoc
Open Source: github.com/kitmodule
Buy me a Coffee: buymeacoffee.com/huynhnhanquoc
Keep me Dreaming: ko-fi.com/huynhnhanquoc