Frequently asked

BEAD — short for Browser Emergency Assistance Desk — is a free collection of small, focused web tools: JSON formatters, JWT decoders, image resizers, hash generators, workflow chains, and about a hundred more. Each one is designed to do one thing quickly and get out of your way.

Yes — every tool, no caps, no trial. We run modest banner ads to cover hosting; some visitors block them and that's fine. There's no paid tier, no "upgrade for unlimited", no email gate. If you find a tool you use weekly, suggest the next one and we'll probably build it.

No, not for the tools — every utility on the site works anonymously, no signup required. Accounts only exist for the programmatic API: if you want to call BEAD from your code or AI agent at higher rate limits, you can sign up for a free API key. Everything in the browser stays anonymous.

Yes. Every tool is designed mobile-first and works in any modern browser. On iOS and Android you can also install BEAD as a Progressive Web App (look for "Add to Home Screen" in Safari, or the install prompt in Chrome) and then it works offline.

Almost nowhere. The vast majority of tools run entirely in your browser — your input never leaves the page. A small number need to make a network request (for example, DNS lookups), and those tools say so in the "Privacy" line at the top.

No. Server-side logging is limited to standard request metadata (page URL, user agent, IP for rate limiting). We don't log the contents of any input field, and for client-side tools there's nothing to log because the data never reaches us.

A few small things in localStorage: your favorites, your recently-used list, any workflows you save, the current workflow draft so a refresh doesn't lose work, and your theme preference. Clearing browser data clears all of it.

No. Favorites and workflows live in your browser only — nothing of yours sits on our servers. (The optional API-key account doesn't change this; that account is for programmatic rate limits, not for tool state.) You can "move" a workflow by exporting it as JSON or copying its shareable #w=… URL.

A workflow is a chain of tools. You paste an input, add steps (each one is a tool — JSON Format, SQL Format, CSV → JSON, etc.), and the final output appears at the bottom. You can run any preset from the gallery with one click, or build your own from scratch.

Yes. Every preset has its own URL like /workflows/decode-jwt. For custom workflows, the Share button copies a self-contained #w=… URL — anyone who opens that link sees the exact same workflow loaded and ready to run.

Your work is auto-saved every few hundred milliseconds. On your next visit to /workflowsyou'll see a "Continue your last session?" banner with Restore and Discard. The draft only stays for unsaved work — once you save a workflow under a name, refresh re-loads the saved version normally.

Press ? anywhere on the site for the full list. Highlights: / focuses search, g t goes to Tools, g w to Workflows.

Yes — every tool and every preset has a clean URL. Bookmark /tools/jwt-decoder or /workflows/decode-jwtand you'll land exactly where you left off.

Yes — every tool is callable as both an HTTP API (at api.b-e-a-d.com) and an MCP server (at mcp.b-e-a-d.com), using the same Zod-validated input schemas the browser UI uses. Anonymous: 10 requests per minute, 100 per day per IP. Sign up for a free API key to raise that to 30/min, 1,000/day. Full quickstart, OpenAPI spec, and snippets on the developers page.

Add the MCP server to your config. In Claude Desktop or Claude Code, edit your claude_desktop_config.json and add:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "bead": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.b-e-a-d.com"]
    }
  }
}

Restart, and the LLM gets 150 tools (mcp__bead__*) it can call directly — no copy-paste from a browser. Full setup instructions on /developers.

Two banner placements (header and tool footer) cover hosting and the small recurring costs of running the site. They're standard display ads, not tracking-heavy scripts. If you block them we don't mind — every feature stays free either way.

The browser tools — yes, always. They cost basically nothing to run. The programmatic API is also free at meaningful volume (anonymous and key tiers cover most real use cases). If we ever add a paid tier, it'd be for very high API request volumes — never to gate features that exist today.

Tell us — we'll fix it. The whole point of BEAD is deterministic, reliable output. Specific bug reports through the contact form usually get a same-day or next-day fix.

Yes. There's no commercial restriction. If you're running BEAD on a kiosk, internal portal, or training environment, drop a note via contact — we'd love to hear how.