February 2, 2026
Tray app vs Password Manager: FIGHT!
Show HN: Sklad – Secure, offline-first snippet manager (Rust, Tauri v2)
New secret-stashing tray app sparks ‘Why not KeePass?’ fight
TLDR: Sklad is a new secure, offline snippet manager you click from the system tray, still early and unsigned. Comments split between 'just use KeePassXC' skeptics and fans of its fast, foldered workflow; some side‑eye Tauri bloat, others love keeping ops notes separate and local for speed and privacy.
Meet Sklad, a tray‑dwelling secret‑stasher promising offline‑only safety and “one‑click copy” speed. It locks your passwords, API keys, and copy‑paste snippets with bank‑vault math (AES‑256) and a tough password stretch (Argon2), then lives quietly until you Cmd/Ctrl+K and swoop. Sounds neat—until the comments lit up.
The loudest chorus? “Isn’t this just KeePassXC?” skeptics asked, demanding a reason to install yet another vault. Others cheered the split: keep your day‑to‑day ops notes separate from your password hoard for faster muscle memory and cleaner mental space. Then the platform battle erupted—Tauri (a Rust + web wrapper) vs native: one side fretted about extra baggage, the other shrugged and said cross‑platform wins.
Early‑access drama added spice. Windows threw a SmartScreen tantrum ("Run anyway"), macOS made users cast the Terminal spell “xattr -cr” to banish the “damaged” message. Cue memes: “Password manager or snippet sprinter?” “Left‑click to yeet secrets.” People loved no cloud/tracking, folders, and quick search; doubters warned bugs will bite.
In short, Sklad became a vibe check: a fast, local tool for devs who copy all day vs the all‑in‑one password manager crowd. The takes? Spicy, funny, and very tray‑online. One thing’s clear: speed matters, and trust stays local. For now. Mostly.
Key Points
- •Sklad is a cross-platform, system tray snippet manager for passwords, API keys, code snippets, and frequently used text.
- •Data is protected with a master password, AES-256 encryption, and Argon2 key derivation; storage is local-only (no cloud).
- •Installers are available for Windows (.msi), macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel .dmg), and Linux (.deb); the app is in early access.
- •Windows may show a SmartScreen warning due to lack of code signing; macOS builds are not notarized, with an xattr workaround provided.
- •The project is open source (MIT), built with Rust, React, and Tauri, with documented build prerequisites and commands for all platforms.