Onu: The Developer-First Tool for Turning Scripts into Internal Tools Without Frontend Work

Are you tired of spending hours writing and running one-off scripts for your ops or CX teammates? Are you frustrated with the disjointed and time-consuming tasks that involve both engineering and ops/CX? Do you find building internal tools a pain because of the frontend work involved? If your answer is yes to any of these questions, then Onu might just be the solution you need.

What is Onu?

Onu is a developer-first tool that allows engineers to turn their ops/CX-related scripts or workflows into production-ready internal tools without having to write any frontend code at all. With Onu, you can spin up internal tools quickly using the scripts you’ve already written, spending zero time on frontend development.

Founded in 2022 by Lindsey Redd and Chine Ikoro, Onu takes away the pain of building complex frontends for internal tooling with script automation and auto-generated UIs. Chine and Lindsey, both software engineers who met 5 years ago when they started working at Lyft, saw firsthand how dev tooling made not only engineers, but entire organizations, 100x more productive. They decided to create Onu to help engineering and operations teams work better together.

How Does Onu Work?

Onu works by allowing engineers to use the scripts they've already written to spin up internal tools quickly. The tool provides auto-generated UIs and script automation to take care of the frontend work, allowing engineers to focus on the backend. Onu also allows you to see logs of each task’s previous executions to keep track of when it was run, who ran it, and the result.

One of the best things about Onu is that it allows you to run scripts in your own environment without having to SSH into production. This makes it easy to test and debug your scripts before pushing them to production. Onu also comes with built-in integrations to easily add actions to your tasks like posting to Slack, sending an email, or generating a Linear issue.

What Can You Use Onu For?

Onu was founded in 2022 by Chine Ikoro and Lindsey Redd, two experienced software engineers who met five years ago while working at Lyft. Chine had previously worked as an engineer at Bain before joining the bikes and scooters team at Lyft. After leaving Lyft, she moved on to Stripe, where she worked on projects related to banking-as-a-service, corporate cards, and payment links.

Lindsey, on the other hand, worked on developer infrastructure and observability at Lyft before joining the checkout and payment links teams at Stripe, where she focused on low-code/no-code payments. She studied computer science at Stanford before starting her career in software engineering.

Together, Chine and Lindsey created Onu as a way to solve a common problem they had both encountered throughout their careers: disjointed and time-consuming tasks that involved both engineering and operations/customer experience (CX). They saw engineers spending too much time writing and running one-off scripts to fix issues and other problems, while ops/CX teams were often blocked by engineering.

Onu's Solution

To solve these problems, Onu was created as a developer-first tool that allows engineers to quickly turn their ops/CX-related scripts or workflows into production-ready internal tools without having to write any frontend code at all. The goal is to eliminate the need for engineers to spend time building complex frontends for internal tooling, so they can focus on writing business-critical code instead.

With Onu, engineers can spin up internal tools quickly using the scripts they've already written, without spending any time on frontend development. The platform provides logs of each task's previous executions, allowing users to keep track of when it was run, who ran it, and the results. Onu also enables users to run scripts in their own environment without having to SSH into production, and it offers built-in integrations that allow users to easily add actions to their tasks, such as posting to Slack, sending an email, or generating a Linear issue.

Onu's solution is ideal for anyone who has any manual or repetitive tasks or scripts that they want to migrate onto the platform. Users can onboard new users to their product and then send them a welcome email, cancel a subscription, refund a customer, and then update their CRM, or fix an out-of-sync user account and notify a Slack channel of the fix.

Onu prioritizes integrations based on the needs of its users, making it a powerful addition to any developer's toolkit.

Why Onu is Important

Onu is important because it solves a common problem faced by developers and operations/customer experience teams. It allows them to work together seamlessly without getting bogged down in time-consuming and disjointed tasks. By automating repetitive tasks and scripts, Onu enables teams to focus on high-value work, making them more productive and efficient.

Onu is also important because it democratizes internal tooling. Traditionally, building internal tools required significant frontend development work, which meant that only those with the necessary skills and resources could do it. With Onu, developers can create internal tools quickly and easily, without any frontend development work required. This makes it possible for more teams and individuals to create the internal tools they need to do their work effectively, without having to rely on specialized teams or third-party solutions.

Finally, Onu is important because it helps bridge the gap between engineering and operations/CX teams. By enabling engineers to quickly and easily create the internal tools that operations/CX teams need, Onu can help break down the silos that often exist between these groups. This, in turn, can lead to better collaboration, improved communication, and a more efficient and effective organization overall.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Onu is a developer-first tool that simplifies the process of building internal tools by allowing engineers to turn their scripts and workflows into production-ready tools without any frontend development. The company was founded in 2022 by Lindsey Redd and Chine Ikoro, two experienced software engineers who met at Lyft. With Onu, engineers can spend more time writing business-critical code while operations and customer experience teams can work more efficiently. The tool is currently in development, and interested users can sign up for the waitlist to get early access. Overall, Onu has the potential to revolutionize the way teams work together, and it will be exciting to see how it develops in the coming years.