maaslalani.com

What is Maas Lalani?

Maas Lalani is the personal website of a software developer based in Seattle, WA. He describes himself as someone who builds software "for fun and for a living," with a particular fondness for open-source software and command-line interfaces. The site functions as a portfolio and project index rather than a company or product page.

H3 What you'll find there The page is organized around the things he has made and where he has worked:

• Terminal projects — command-line tools such as Sheets (spreadsheets in the terminal), Slides (presentations in the terminal), Gambit (chess), Draw, Confetty (confetti in the TTY), Nap (code snippets), Invoice, and Twttr (browsing Twitter).
• Products — including Project Folded (sending origami), Just Focus (blocking distracting websites), Remove Vanity Metrics (hiding Twitter metrics), Founder Rewind, Mafia List, Offset List, and the Hawkeye family of testing and accessibility tools.
• Work history — GitHub, Apple, Charm, Locket Camera, Shopify, Hawkeye, and Lending Loop.
• Patents — two applications listed, one published.
• Contact — an email address and social handles, plus links to a résumé, blog, and about page.

H3 Who it's for If you're a developer curious about terminal-based tooling, this is the most useful angle: the CLI projects are concrete examples of pushing interfaces that are usually graphical into the shell. If you're evaluating him as a collaborator or hire, the résumé, work history, and patent list give you the professional context. If you just want to follow his writing, the blog and contact links are the entry points.

H3 A practical next step Pick the category that matches your interest and start there. For terminal enthusiasts, look at Sheets and Slides first, since they best illustrate the "graphical app in a TTY" idea. For hiring or collaboration questions, read the résumé and work history before reaching out. For general updates, the blog is the natural place to begin.

What command line tools has Maas Lalani created?

Maas Lalani lists a set of small, focused command-line programs on his personal site, most of them built around doing one everyday task without leaving the terminal.

Terminal tools listed

• Sheets — spreadsheets in your terminal.
• Slides — presentations in your terminal.
• Gambit — play chess in your terminal.
• Draw — drawing in your terminal.
• Confetty — confetti in your TTY.
• Nap — code snippets in your terminal.
• Invoice — invoices in your terminal.
• Twttr — browse Twitter in your terminal.

Who this is for

These suit developers and terminal-centric users who prefer keyboard-driven workflows and dislike switching to a GUI for quick tasks. The trade-off is that terminal UIs are usually lighter and faster but less polished than dedicated desktop apps: expect fewer formatting options in something like Sheets or Slides, and expect Twttr to be a simplified reading experience rather than the full site.

A practical next step: pick the one task you currently leave the terminal for most often — taking notes, sketching a diagram, or drafting an invoice — and try the matching tool for a week before adopting more. His site also links to GitHub, where you can check each project's README for installation and platform support.

How can I contact Maas Lalani?

Contact Maas Lalani by email at [email protected], or on X/Twitter at @maaslalani. His personal site also lists GitHub and a contact section, so those are the other direct routes if you prefer a public profile over a message.

If your reason for reaching out is a specific project, mention it in your first line. He builds terminal tools such as Sheets, Slides, Gambit, Draw, Confetty, Nap, Invoice and Twttr, plus products like Project Folded, Just Focus and Hawkeye. Naming the tool tells him immediately whether you are reporting a bug, asking about collaboration, or just saying thanks.

A short message works best:

• Subject: the project name plus one word, such as "Nap bug" or "Sheets question"
• Body: what you tried, what happened, and what you expected
• Link: a repository issue or screenshot if the problem is visual

For anything public and reproducible, opening an issue on the relevant GitHub project is often more useful than a private email, because the thread stays searchable for other users. Use Maas Lalani to confirm the current contact details before sending.

What products has Maas Lalani developed besides command line tools?

Maas Lalani's portfolio is split between terminal tools and a separate set of non-CLI products. The non-command-line items fall into three loose groups: web/social utilities, hardware-connected or AR experiments, and small physical or content products.

Non-CLI products listed

• Size Link — an augmented reality tool for visualizing dimensions.
• Project Folded — a service for sending origami to loved ones.
• Just Focus — a tool for blocking distracting websites.
• Remove Vanity Metrics — a browser-style utility that hides Twitter metrics.
• Founder Rewind — a collection of old interviews with founders.
• Mafia List — a directory of startups founded by former employees of X (the company formerly known as Twitter).
• Offset List — a directory of carbon offsetting companies.
• Hawkeye Testing — a usability tool that shows where people look in your apps.
• Hawkeye Access — an accessibility product that lets you use an iPhone using only your eyes.

Who each one is for

The directories (Mafia List, Offset List, Founder Rewind) suit people doing research or market scanning rather than developers. Just Focus and Remove Vanity Metrics are personal-productivity and digital-wellbeing tools for everyday users. Hawkeye Testing is aimed at product teams running usability studies, while Hawkeye Access targets users with motor impairments and the developers building for them. Size Link and Project Folded are more experimental or consumer-oriented.

How to decide what to look at

If you want the most technically distinctive work, start with Hawkeye Access, since eye-only iPhone control is a meaningful accessibility use case. If you want something immediately usable, Just Focus or Remove Vanity Metrics are the simplest to try. A practical next step is to open the site's project list and pick by category — terminal tools for developer workflows, the lists for reference, and the Hawkeye pair for accessibility and testing — rather than browsing everything at once.

What is Hawkeye Access and how does it work?

Hawkeye Access is one of Maas Lalani's products, grouped on his site under the Hawkeye name alongside Hawkeye Testing. His page describes Access as a way to "use your iPhone with only your eyes." That is the core idea: eye-based control of the phone rather than touch or voice.

How it works, based on what the site states

The page gives only the one-line description, so the mechanics are best understood as the general category it belongs to: eye tracking on the iPhone. In practice, tools like this use the front-facing camera to follow where you look, then map a gaze target to an on-screen action such as selecting a button, scrolling, or moving through apps. Because the description emphasizes "only your eyes," the intended interaction is hands-free — useful when touching the screen is difficult or impossible.

Who it is for

• People with limited hand or arm mobility who still want full use of an iPhone.
• Anyone in a situation where hands are occupied or constrained.
• Developers and researchers curious about accessible input methods, since Lalani's other work (Hawkeye Testing) focuses on where people look in apps.

What to keep in mind

The site does not list pricing, supported iPhone models, setup steps, or accuracy details, so treat those as things to verify directly rather than assume. Eye tracking on a phone camera is sensitive to lighting, glasses, and how steadily you can hold the device — a practical limitation of the approach, not a claim about this specific product.

Next step

If you want to try it or check compatibility, the most reliable route is Lalani's own site, Maas Lalani, where Hawkeye Access sits with his other projects and contact details are provided.

What is Project Folded and how does it relate to origami?

Project Folded is one of Maas Lalani's products, listed alongside his terminal tools and other apps. Its stated purpose is to send origami to loved ones. That is the whole of the connection to origami: the product's subject is folded paper, and the name "Folded" is a direct reference to the fold, the basic action that turns a flat sheet into an origami figure.

H3 What this suggests in practice Because the listing is a one-line description rather than a feature page, treat "send origami to loved ones" as the product's intent, not as a specification. A reasonable reading is a service or app that lets you order or dispatch a folded-paper piece to someone as a gift or note. Two plausible models follow from that phrasing:

• Physical delivery. You choose or design a folded piece, and it arrives at the recipient's address. This fits "send" literally and matches the sentimental framing of "loved ones."
• Digital sending. You compose a folded-paper design and share it as a message or card. This fits a maker who otherwise builds terminal software, where the output is a file or a screen rather than a parcel.

The description alone does not settle which it is. If the distinction matters to you, check the product page before assuming a physical gift will arrive.

H3 Who it is for The framing points at personal occasions rather than business use: birthdays, anniversaries, thank-you notes, or long-distance gestures where a plain message feels thin. The trade-off is effort versus novelty. A conventional card or flower delivery is faster and more predictable; an origami gift carries more personal character but depends on the product actually producing something worth keeping.

H3 A concrete scenario Suppose a friend moves abroad and you want to mark the occasion. You could send a standard message, or you could use a tool like Project Folded to send a folded paper piece that survives the trip as an object rather than a notification. That is the case the product seems designed for.

For context on the maker and his other work, see Maas Lalani.