How We Build and Verify Tools

A diagnostic tool that gives a confident wrong answer is worse than no tool at all — someone acts on it. This page describes how we try to make sure that does not happen: how the tools are built, how they are checked, and how we handle being wrong.

The calculations are tested

The logic behind each tool that computes a result — subnet maths, contrast ratios, cost per page, timestamp conversion, and the rest — is written as a pure function and checked against known values with an automated test suite. Black on white is 21:1 contrast; a 1 TB drive is 931 GiB; SHA-256 of "abc" has one correct answer. Where there is a right answer, we pin it, so a future change cannot quietly break it.

We are honest about limits

Every tool states what it cannot tell you, in its own words, and a tool cannot be published without that section. A browser cannot read your hardware; an estimate is not a measurement; a two-resolver check is not global. We would rather a tool say plainly what it does not know than imply a certainty it does not have. This is enforced, not aspirational: an automated check blocks a tool from publishing if it makes a claim a browser cannot back up.

Money does not change results

Some pages carry affiliate links, and we may earn a commission from them. Those links never change what a tool reports or which result it gives. When a test fails, free fixes are always listed first, and a paid option — if any — comes after, disclosed as advertising. A failed test is not a cue to sell you something; it is information.

Corrections

We get things wrong sometimes, and when we do we want to fix them quickly. If a tool gives a result you can show is incorrect, or overstates what it measured, tell us atcontact@brightscalelabs.com. Correcting an error that could mislead someone takes priority over almost anything else we are doing.

Reference data

Lookups of codes, ports and specifications are compiled from primary sources and vendor documentation. Because vendors revise these, the tools that use them say so and point you to the vendor's current documentation for anything critical.