Anvil was a macOS menu bar app that wrapped Pow, the zero-configuration local development server created by Basecamp. Drop a project into your workspace, visit a .dev URL, and it ran. No manual port configuration, no startup scripts to remember.
Why we built it
Local development friction slows everything downstream. Before a site reaches Forge, it has to work on a developer's machine. Pow solved a real problem: make local servers feel invisible so teams could focus on the work itself.
Anvil made Pow accessible. A menu bar presence, simple controls, and a native macOS wrapper around something that was otherwise terminal-first. For a period, it was how Beach developers ran projects locally with minimal setup.
How it connected to The Beach Way
Anvil served the earliest stage of the build journey: getting from idea to running locally. In Beach Way terms, it lowered the cost of starting an expedition. Less time configuring environments meant more time exploring, building trails, and iterating before deployment.
It was never the destination. It was the bench where work began before Hammer compiled it and Forge hosted it.
What happened
Pow is no longer supported. The underlying dependency that Anvil wrapped has not kept pace with modern macOS, tooling, or how teams develop today.
Alternatives proliferated: Docker, dev containers, framework-native dev servers, and Hammer's own live reload for static sites. The zero-config local server problem did not disappear, but the ecosystem solved it in many different ways. Anvil was deprecated rather than rebuilt on a dying foundation.
The lesson remains useful: remove friction from the path between thought and running code. The specific tool was of its era.