Matt Wolfe

Matt Wolfe - Overview

Matt Wolfe founded Future Tools after his spreadsheet of AI products became difficult to search.^[1] He had been recording tools he wanted to use again, so he already had a practical way to judge the first version of the site: could he find a tool he remembered seeing?^[1] Today, Future Tools lists separate roles for newsletter writing, video production, social media, and tool moderation.^[2]

What Matt Wolfe - Built

Future Tools began as a searchable, sortable directory. Wolfe shared it on Twitter, made design changes, and then posted it on Facebook, where readers gave him feedback for the next iteration.^[1] The site now pairs its full directory with a shorter list of twenty tools that Wolfe personally recommends and reviews monthly.^[3]

Wolfe published a playable browser game, The Librarian, alongside a walkthrough covering planning, implementation, graphics, sound, and backing up the project to GitHub.^[4] The original game's package is named library-survivors and declares the ISC license.^[5]

The Librarian 2 turns shelving books into a 3D survival game. Children scatter items across the library, and the player returns them to matching shelves before the chaos meter fills.^[6] The game generates its characters, textures, music, and sound effects in code when it starts.^[6]

Wolfe also created BuseyBench, which asks models to produce a recognizable portrait of actor Gary Busey.^[7] For its SVG test, readers can inspect the vector source behind each portrait and see whether the model ran through an API or a consumer interface.^[8]

How Matt Wolfe - Builds

For Future Tools, Wolfe used Webflow to turn his Google Sheet into a database, added search and sorting, and wrote a scraper to collect information about the tools.^[1] For The Librarian 2, he used Claude Code for the initial build, playtested it, backed it up to GitHub, and switched to OpenAI Codex for refinements.^[9] The repository includes tests for game mechanics and level reachability, so someone modifying the game can check whether players can still reach their objectives.^[6]

Business Model

Future Tools earns commissions on qualifying referrals and sells labeled newsletter sponsorships, banner space, and featured directory listings.^[3] The site says sponsors cannot purchase a place in Wolfe's Top 20.^[3] The historical figure below is Wolfe's approximate cumulative affiliate commission total as of January 10, 2023, when referrals were the site's only income source. He said he had yet to reconcile the individual affiliate accounts.^[10]

Timeline

Lessons

Further Reading

Claude Code in the AI IDE List directory