Knowledge base.
Everything in one place — who we are, what changed recently, and answers to the questions we hear most.
About us
What we're building
We build tools for people who want their software to stay out of the way. Right now that's Workspace — a developer workspace for managing projects, tasks, notes, sprints, and milestones, with two-way GitHub Issues sync — and Caspian Office, a browser toolkit for PDF, image, and file work that never uploads your files. The Caspian-Taskmaster and Caspian-Notes VS Code extensions are their own products; they sync into Workspace for developers who want it.
The common thread is restraint: local-first where it's possible, no data we don't need, and a free tier that keeps working. We'd rather cut a feature than compromise on that.
Local-first, by construction
Take Workspace: both clients — the web app and the VS Code extensions — are equal writers. Neither one is a server-authoritative oracle. Edits flow through Firestore, which acts as a shared queue; the two sides reconcile by reading each other's changes. The extensions queue writes while offline and flush them when connectivity returns.
We don't host a custom OAuth backend, a sync server, or a queue worker for anything other than email delivery and a couple of slug-claim transactions. The fewer pieces of bespoke infrastructure between your editor and your data, the fewer places things can silently break.
Principles that constrain decisions
We work under a small set of principles — drawn from an Islamic ethical framework — that constrain feature, data, and business model choices. Not branding language; actual constraints on what we will and won't build.
- Amanah — user data is held in trust. Collect only what's needed. No selling. No user-level tracking; analytics never identifies you and you can opt out. Deletion is real deletion.
- Sidq — marketing claims match implementation. No dark patterns. AI outputs are disclosed.
- Adl — pricing transparent and proportionate. No paywalling safety features. Cancellation frictionless.
- Ihsan — quality over feature count. Performance and reliability come first.
- No facilitation of riba, gambling, or content harmful to dignity, including through third-party integrations.
These principles are maintained as a written document alongside the code, and change as the product changes.
Source code
Some of the studio's work is public. These repositories are open to read:
- caspian-notes — the VS Code extension for notes.
- caspian-security — the security scanner for code and infrastructure.
- caspian-emulator — the Android emulator manager for VS Code.
- script-caspian-store — the storefront scaffold.
The studio's full list is at github.com/CaspianTools. Products not listed above are not currently open to read.
Latest changes
Full changelog →August 2026
2026-08- Dependency health for project repositories
Projects with a bound GitHub repository get a Dependencies tab and an overview card: the repo's package.json is scanned against the npm registry and every package is classified as up-to-date, patch, minor, or major behind.
- Automatic daily scans with configurable alerts
Bound repositories are re-scanned automatically every day. Project owners get a notification per severity level while issues remain — and each level (major / minor / patch) has its own reminder cadence in Project Settings → Dependency alerts: off, daily, weekly, or monthly.
- Export outdated dependencies
The Dependencies page can copy or download the current issue list — every major, minor, and patch update pending, worst-first — as JSON or CSV.
- Project chat with @-mentions
Every project has a realtime Chat tab for its members. Type @ to mention a teammate (they get a notification), and attach references to the project’s tasks, notes, checklists, flows, sprints, and milestones as clickable chips.
- Projects page: list view, search, and pinning
A sortable list view is now the default on the Projects page, with a cards/list switcher, name search, and state filters. Projects can be pinned to keep them on top for the whole team.
- Notion-style editor for notes
The note page swaps its markdown textarea for a block editor — slash-menu blocks, drag handles, inline formatting — while notes stay markdown underneath, so VS Code sync is untouched. Notes are also protected by check-out locking so two people can’t silently overwrite each other.
- Marketing pages
caspiantools.com has a real public-facing site — home, features, pricing, about, privacy, terms, changelog, and this support page. Logged-out visitors land here instead of being bounced straight to the sign-in page.
May 2026
2026-05- Per-note sync badge
Every note now shows a small Synced check on its card and detail header, so you can tell at a glance that your edits made it to the cloud.
- Project pill on task cards and rows
Tasks attributed to a project show the project name on the kanban card and the list row. Tasks without a project show nothing, as before.
- Cloud Functions on Node 22
Backend functions upgraded to Node 22 with firebase-functions v7 and firebase-admin v13. No user-visible behaviour change; this is a runtime refresh ahead of the Node 20 deprecation.
Frequently asked questions
What is Workspace?
Do I need the VS Code extensions?
How does the GitHub sync work?
What do dependency scans do?
Who can see my data?
Is there a free tier?
How do I invite teammates?
How do I report a bug or ask for help?
Contact the studio
Questions, bug reports, ideas — anything the FAQ didn't cover.