Let’s jump into it!
At Caktus, we’re always looking for tools that help us streamline our workflows, increase productivity, and make our day-to-day tasks more efficient. Whether you're managing projects, writing code, or debugging, the right tools can make all the difference. Here are some of our favorite tools that we love using to get the job done!
Keanya: Project Manager
Django Documentation
As I transition from software development into technical project management, I don’t always have the cycles to write code as much as I would like. However, I aim to maintain my technical knowledge and skills. One of my favorite tools to achieve this is the tried and true Django documentation, which is comprehensive and incredibly user-friendly. The documentation breaks down complex concepts into digestible sections, making it fairly simple to find what you need. It is organized logically, so you can easily move from one section to another without feeling lost. This documentation isn't just a reference guide; it's also a learning tool. It covers everything from Django’s core concepts to advanced features, with plenty of examples and use cases that help contextualize the information. For a technical project manager like me, the ability to access this comprehensive, easy-to-follow resource is invaluable.
Jeanette: Developer
GitHub Copilot
I love GitHub Copilot because it reduces the time I spend on repetitive tasks and writing boilerplate code, allowing me to focus more on solving problems. Its suggestions streamline my workflow by predicting and completing code snippets. Beyond that, it offers simple, in-line explanations that help me understand unfamiliar functions or syntax without breaking my workflow. This makes learning new technologies and debugging much faster, as I can quickly grasp the purpose of a given piece of code.
GitLens
GitLens is an awesome VS Code extension that makes working with Git way easier and more efficient. It gives super useful insights into code history, showing who changed what, when, and why—right inside the editor. One of my favorite features is the blame annotations, which let me see commit history inline so I can quickly understand how a file has evolved. It also comes with powerful tools, like commit searching, making it much easier to navigate big projects. Whether I’m debugging, reviewing a PR, or tracking down when a bug pops up, GitLens makes Git so much smoother to work with!
Tobias: CEO/Lead Developer
Ansible
Caktus utilizes Ansible to manage its clients' diverse infrastructure requirements, which include public cloud environments (AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud) as well as on-premise physical hardware and self-managed Kubernetes clusters in client-owned data centers. Ansible is the only tool Caktus has found that can effectively adapt to this wide range of infrastructure environments. One of my favorites is the kubernetes.core.helm module, which allows us to automate all of the Helm charts required for a cluster. In a disaster recovery scenario, this allows us to bring the system back online in a new environment as quickly as possible while minimizing the possibility of human error.
Pair Programming
As we previously wrote about on the Caktus blog and spoke about at DjangoCon Europe 2024, pair programming is a big part of our daily work life at Caktus. Pair programming remotely is far easier with a good tool, and Visual Studio Live Share and Code With Me are both good options.
Gerald: Scrum Master/Quality Assurance Analyst
Font Finder Chrome Extension
Font Finder is one of my go-to Chrome extensions when I’m testing major CSS updates to a site because it makes checking fonts quick and easy. Instead of digging through the dev tools to comb through the CSS, I can just click on any text element on the page and instantly see details like font type, size, color, line height, etc.
Page Load Time Chrome Extension
When testing data-driven sites, I like using the Page Load Time Chrome extension because it gives me an instant read on how fast a page loads without needing to dig through dev tools. It’s great for spotting performance issues, especially on pages that pull in a lot of data on initial load. This extension displays the load time right in the toolbar, making it easy to track load time as I test different pages.
Go Full Page Chrome Extension
Go Full Page lets me capture full-page screenshots in one click. I’ve found it especially useful for capturing long pages that might have layout issues. Being able to do this without the hassle of stitching images together or taking multiple screenshots helps save time and effort.
Ronard: Developer
Direnv
Direnv allows you to load and unload environment variables depending on the current directory. It is ideal for navigating many projects at once, all you have to do is cd into the target directory and direnv handles everything from your Python virtual environment, secrets, API keys, kubeconfig for Kubernetes, and more.
Invoke Kubesae
Invoke Kubesae is one of our internal tools at Caktus. inv encompasses the most-used management tasks for working with Kubernetes clusters. As someone who manages several Kubernetes clusters, I use it daily. I love that it shortens many valuable commands, but also shows the full command on execution. It’s an open-source tool and contributions are always welcomed.
Karen: Technical Director/Lead Developer
Netdata
Netdata is a system monitoring tool that makes it easy to see characteristics of system usage over time, receive alerts for problems, and automatically set up corrective actions such as restarting a service that perhaps has encountered a deadlock. It's also possible to run it entirely on-premises without any paid subscription, so it's friendly to small non-profit or limited-budget organizations.
Colin: CTO/Lead Developer
Jupyter Notebooks
Jupyter Notebooks are an invaluable tool for data analysis and visualization. They allow me to write and execute code, view results immediately, and "show my work" in a way that a script doesn't, making them ideal for prototyping. This real-time feedback loop is especially useful when working with data, as I can quickly verify that my code behaves as expected.
Jupyter Extension for Visual Studio Code
The Jupyter Extension for Visual Studio Code allows me to use Jupyter Notebooks directly within VS Code, which is my preferred code editor. This means I can open and edit .ipynb files and work with both notebooks and Python code in a single location. Additionally, I can leverage GitHub Copilot for code suggestions inside notebook cells, a feature not available when using the Jupyter Notebook server.
We hope you found this list of tools useful! At Caktus, we’re always exploring ways to improve our workflows, and the right tools can make all the difference in boosting productivity and collaboration. What are some of your favorite tools? Let us know in the comments!