DendroLabs
Workshop & Code Bench
※ The shop · est. 2022

Where craft becomes code.

Etymology
dendro
/ˈdɛndroʊ/ · Greek · "tree"

The name of our lab is taken from the Greek for tree, because every product here is rooted in hands-on craft — even when the output is digital. The branches grow in different directions. The trunk is the same.

§ I — The story

It started in a home workshop. A jig here, a fixture there. The jigs got smarter. Then they got motors.

Somewhere along the way the workshop grew a microcontroller and a soldering iron, and after that a text editor and a few too many opinions about subscriptions. The output kept changing shape. Wood. Steel. Code. The work underneath did not.

Today the shop ships hardware kits, native apps, and open-source tools. The customers are tradespeople, network engineers, knitters, hobbyists — anyone who uses a tool often enough to notice when it is wrong.

The common thread is simple. Every product on this site started with a job that needed doing, an existing tool that did it badly, and a quiet decision to build the better one. That is the whole story. The rest is sawdust and key clicks.

§ II — Three branches

One trunk.
Different branches for different days.

i.
Hardware

Precision tools that bridge old craft and modern electronics.

Microcontrollers, stepper motors, laser scanners, sensor bridges. Built in the shop. Tested on real projects, not benchtops. The kind of thing you bolt on once and then forget about.

ii.
Apps

Native apps for audiences who deserve better tools.

iOS, macOS, and Android. From an electrician's calculator to a knitting tracker — purpose-built software that respects your time, your wallet, and your data. Shipped, not rented.

iii.
Open Source

Networking and infrastructure tools, given back.

SONiC firewall modules, virtualized labs, ARM64 support, a graph database in Rust. Tools that were missing, given back to the engineering community that builds the rest of the stack.

§ III — How we build

A short list. Followed honestly.

01

Solve real problems

Every product starts with a frustration, not a market opportunity. If something frustrates people enough and the existing tools are not cutting it, we build the replacement.

02

Ship quality

No subscriptions for simple tools. No data collection where it is not needed. No bloat. The app you bought is the app you keep.

03

Stay independent

Small team. Many disciplines. We answer to the work, the customer, and the code — in that order.

§ IV — The bench

One shop. Two languages. The same standard either way.

On the wood side: a thicknesser, a table saw with a stop bridge of our own design, and a small CNC router. On the code side: a few mechanical keyboards, an aging Mac, and a test rig that looks like a science fair. Both halves answer to the same question: does it do its job, then get out of the way?

Technical illustration of the shop — wood side and code side
From the bench
“We do not chase trends. We do not collect users. We make tools for people who notice when their tools are wrong. If a thing is worth building, it is worth building right and keeping around.”
— DendroLabs
Workshop & Code Bench
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