Tink vs Scalpel
Scalpel carves files from a disk image by header and footer. That is not a mechanic. Tink installs in one command, watches the Linux host, explains what is wrong, and helps you fix it.
Scalpel recovers the files. Tink answers “why is this VPS sick?”
Accidental sysadmins land on Scalpel because a free header/footer carver looks like insurance. Then the host volume fills, nginx dies, and the last audit.txt still looks complete — no scalpel.conf match for host fill. A filling /var is a Tink warning; it is not a Scalpel job unless you scraped recovery mail and watched it.
Tink is the other job: detect the issue on the machine, say why it happened in plain English, propose the command, and run it only after you approve. Keep using Scalpel if you already run file carving. Use Tink if you run Linux servers and want a mechanic.
| Feature | Tink | Scalpel |
|---|---|---|
| Setup time | 30 seconds (one curl | sh command) | Hours — image the disk, edit scalpel.conf, run scalpel -c scalpel.conf -o out image.dd, wait for audit.txt, then a host that still has no mechanic after the last carve finished |
| What you get | Working monitoring, diagnosis, and approved fixes | A header/footer file carver. Disk fill, nginx, Postgres, and certs stay your problem until you SSH past the last audit.txt |
| Pricing | Free (Scout) / $9 / $29 per machine per month | Apache-2.0 and free. You still pay the person who owns the VPS after the last Scalpel -c pass looks finished |
| Hidden costs | None — fully managed | A quiet audit.txt that is not host fill, downtime to image /dev/sdX, scalpel.conf homework, and a second tool to tell you the box is sick while the last carve still showed complete |
| Monitoring approach | Agent on the server — CPU, disk, services, logs, certs, ports | Scalpel -c conf, -o out, header/footer types, audit.txt. Scalpel does not watch a quiet cert or host auth.log after the last recovery session ended |
| Configuration | None after install — heuristics and AI | Which image to carve, which scalpel.conf headers, -o output dir, and which failed Scalpel session actually pages you |
| Plain-English diagnosis | Yes — AI explains root cause, impact, and fix | You read audit.txt and the output tree, then SSH into the host to change the Linux box Scalpel already carved files off |
| Fix execution | Proposes and executes approved commands with an audit trail | Carve headers into an output dir — Scalpel cannot free host disk, rotate a cert, or stop SSH brute-force unless you run scalpel again |
| Alerting | Built-in across 8 channels | Not a Scalpel job — cron mail from a failed image plus a separate monitoring tool have to fire |
| Predictive alerts | Yes — disk fills in ~6 days, memory and CPU trends | Not a Scalpel job — an audit.txt date does not forecast a quiet host filling up |
| SSH brute-force detection | Built-in — parses auth.log every scan | Never — Scalpel does not read host auth.log, journald, or firewall state after the last recovery session ended |
| Machine offline detection | Agent presence monitoring with multi-channel alerts | Silence if the host dies after the last Scalpel -c pass — unless you built a separate uptime check |
| Public status page | Shareable URL with 90-day history | None — Scalpel has no customer-facing status page for the Linux host |
| Weekly fleet digest | Automated Monday digest + daily brief when issues are open | None — an audit.txt recap is not a plain-English fleet narrative |
| On-call tracking | Built-in /oncall command + incident acknowledgment | Not included — wire failed Scalpel carves into PagerDuty or another incident tool |
| Conversation interface | Telegram, WhatsApp, web dashboard, CLI | The Scalpel CLI, scalpel.conf, and SSH. No mechanic you text when /var filled and the last -c pass still showed complete |
| Learning curve | None — works after install | Steep — scalpel -c, -o, header/footer config, audit.txt, and which failure is the carve vs the running host |
| Best for | Freelancers, small teams, accidental sysadmins (1-50 Linux servers) | Teams that already run Scalpel for file carving, not a sick-VPS mechanic |
When Scalpel is the right choice
Keep using Scalpel when you already want that exact job:
- File carving — you need scalpel -c, header/footer config, or audit.txt, not a mechanic.
- An existing recovery stack — disk images, forensic lab LAN, and scalpel.conf matter more than guest nginx, certs, and SSH on a quiet VPS.
- An existing lab or nested setup — Scalpel already runs, audit.txt already exists, and someone owns the image file.
- Hosts that only page on image or restore death — you already run failed-backup mail, not a sick-box SSH loop.
The real cost of “just run scalpel”
Scalpel carves files. A working ops loop for five Linux boxes is not:
- A healthy -c pass still means you SSH into the host and change the box by hand when it gets sick later
- Host fill, nginx, certs, and SSH brute-force never appear unless a separate tool scraped those signals and a rule fired
- A filling /var is a Tink disk warning on every scan — Scalpel will stay quiet until the next recovery session
- A single VPS with a dead agent still needs a mechanic, not another scalpel -c pass
For a 5-server team, Tink Mechanic at $45/month is cheaper than the engineer who keeps failed-backup notifications alive after a green Scalpel session, and every scan includes a diagnosis a quiet audit.txt will not type.
No audit.txt or scalpel.conf homework. No silent host. One command install.
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