About

Gimli is a one-man side project where I (Joakim) develop tools for front-end developers. I’ve currently released browser extensions for TailwindCSS and Bootstrap developers, with more tools on the horizon.

History

Back in 2018, after years as a front-end developer, I hit a wall. The daily grind, office politics, and a growing sense of meaninglessness in my work led me to a pivotal decision. I resigned from my job and started working on Gimli, a Visual Studio Code extension aimed at simplifying front-end development. My vision was ambitious, and I turned to Kickstarter in 2019, hoping to fund this dream. You can read more about the project and my motivation behind Gimli at the Kickstarter page.

Despite the passion behind it, the Kickstarter did not meet its goal. Faced with financial pressures, I returned to traditional employment but couldn't let go of Gimli. Juggling a full-time job and the development of Gimli proved overwhelming; the project's scope was vast. In 2020, attempting to keep the dream alive, I launched Gimli as an online playground. Unfortunately, user feedback was lukewarm, and the platform didn't meet my standards or those of the users, leading me to take it down with promises of future improvements.

Gimli Tailwind

During these years, TailwindCSS was making waves in the developer community. Recognizing an opportunity, I adapted some of Gimli's features to fit TailwindCSS. What started as an experiment within the playground evolved into something greater. In 2022, I released Gimli Tailwind as a Chrome extension. The reception was beyond encouraging, with the extension quickly garnering a perfect 5-star rating from its early adopters. This positive feedback spurred further development, leading to its current status with over 9,000 users, making it the go-to DevTools extension for TailwindCSS enthusiasts.

Gimli Bootstrap

I launched Gimli Bootstrap in 2024, aiming to replicate the success with another popular framework. The adoption has been modest with currently around 170 active users. I'm not sure why it's not been able to find a larger audience.

Plans for the future

As we enter 2025, my focus is set on finally launching the Gimli Playground. It's been years in the making, lingering in an "almost there" status. Additionally, I plan to revisit and perhaps implement some of the original ideas from the Kickstarter campaign. Despite the time passed, people do ask me about it from time to time.

Support

If you want to reach out with feedback or questions, you can do so using either the support mail on the extension pages or any of my social media pages.