About
What this is
HardwareContext reads what's actually connected to a microcontroller — I2C addresses, GPIO states, ADC voltages, OneWire ROM codes, UART chatter — and turns it into a report you can paste into a datasheet search or an AI chat. It is deterministic: every value comes from probing the hardware and matching it against a static parts database. Nothing is guessed, and no model ever touches your scan.
Who's behind it
HardwareContext is built and run by one person, not a company or a funded startup — a solo, self-funded project. There is no support team, no sales team; if you email hello@hardwarecontext.com I read it and reply myself.
Why deterministic, why no AI
Most "AI hardware helper" tools guess. Point a language model at a photo of a board or a vague description and it will confidently invent a part number that sounds right and isn't. That's fine for brainstorming, dangerous for wiring something up.
HardwareContext instead treats the board as the source of truth. It probes the actual bus and pin, reads back what's really there, and reports it — including when it can't identify something, which it says plainly instead of filling the gap with a guess. The report it produces is meant to be a good input to an AI conversation, not a replacement for one.
Where it stands today
The scan engine, board registry, and ESP32 firmware are working and in active use. The board registry — the list of known parts and how to identify them — is still growing, and boards outside it currently report raw readings without a confirmed identity rather than a guess. If a part you have isn't recognized, tell me and I'll add it.
Scanning runs in the desktop app on Windows, macOS, and Linux, so it can talk directly to the serial port without depending on a browser-specific hardware API.
Business model, plainly
Free accounts get a handful of scans a month, no card required. Paid plans remove the limit and add saved scan history. Payments are processed by Dodo Payments, who is the merchant of record — see the Terms and Privacy Policy for the specifics. There is no advertising and no data resale — the plan you pay for is the entire business model.