So I've been shipping tools with zero build step for a while now — no webpack, no npm, no
bundler. Just one index.html per tool, vanilla JS, inline or linked CSS.

People assume it falls apart once the project gets "big enough." Honestly, for the kind of
tools I build (formatters, converters, generators), it never does. The whole thing is one
file you can double-click and it works. No node_modules, no config files, no "works on my
machine."

What I've landed on:

• ES modules via <script type="module"> — proper import/export without a bundler
• CSS custom properties for theming instead of Sass variables
• No frameworks. If I need reactivity, 20 lines of vanilla JS is faster than pulling in React

The tradeoff is real though — no HMR, no tree-shaking, and if you're building something
with heavy dependencies you'll feel the pain. But for utility tools? It's the right call.

I've got a bunch of these live at xnipertools.com if you want
to see what the end result looks like in practice.

Curious where other people draw the line — at what point did a project force you back to
a build tool?