Friction Lab is an independent developer-tools initiative founded by Keven Li. The focus is on building small, focused software that addresses specific friction points in everyday developer workflows — without adding new complexity in return.
The tools built here are local-first by design. That means they work offline, store state on your machine, and don't require an account, a subscription, or a cloud connection to do their job. You can inspect what they do and audit what they change.
AI assistance is a first-class concern in several of the tools under development, but it's treated as a workflow component rather than a product feature. Anything AI-generated should be reviewable before it acts. That principle shapes how Relay and Code Atlas are being designed.
The first public release — Wayfinder v0.1.0-rc1 — is a Rust-based terminal navigator for macOS. It's small, keyboard-driven, and does exactly one thing: make filesystem navigation from the terminal faster and more structured.
More tools are in development. Progress is public on GitHub.