When a tool you rely on every day disappears without warning, it's more than an inconvenience, it's a reminder that dependency on brittle solutions is a risk you shouldn't have to carry. The user who posted about powerqueryformatter.com going dark speaks for many data professionals: that site was a quiet workhorse, trusted to transform tangled M code into something readable. Its sudden silence leaves a real gap. But rather than scramble for a replacement, this moment invites a more fundamental question: why are we still treating code formatting as a separate chore at all?
The instinct to reach for Copilot is understandable, but the hesitation is telling. "I don't trust it to not mess with my code" isn't skepticism, it's experience. AI assistants can be powerful, but they operate in a black box. You hand over your logic and hope the output matches your intent. That's not a workflow; it's a gamble. What the powerqueryformatter.com user really needs isn't another external service or a chat interface that might rewrite their work. They need a spreadsheet environment where clarity is built in, not bolted on after the fact.
This is where the vision for AI-native spreadsheets becomes concrete. Imagine a tool that doesn't just format your M code on command but writes it cleanly from the start. One that surfaces readable, structured logic as you build, not as a separate step you remember to run. The frustration of a downed website evaporates when the intelligence lives inside the application itself, when formatting, debugging, and even authoring code happen naturally, without switching tabs or trusting a third party. That's not a feature request; it's a design principle.
The lesson here isn't about finding a new formatter. It's about expecting more from the tools you use every day. If a single site going dark can stall your workflow, the workflow itself is the problem. Explore alternatives that embed clarity into the process, not patch it on afterward. Your data deserves a tool that works with you, not one you have to work around.