ForHosting KIT · Developer Utilities

Columnar transposition cipher

This columnar transposition cipher tool encrypts or decrypts text by rearranging characters under a keyword instead of substituting letters.

● BetaFree · in your browser

Run — free How it works & API

Use it from WebAPIEmailTelegramApp soon

You enter a message, a non-empty key, and an optional mode; the engine builds a grid whose width equals the key length, writes the text left to right and top to bottom, then reads each column top to bottom in the order obtained by sorting the key characters. Decrypting reverses that layout so the same keyword restores the original string bit for bit. All characters move together—spaces, digits, and punctuation keep their places in the sequence and are never stripped—so phrases and CTF payloads stay faithful to textbook worksheets. The path is fully deterministic with no network calls, no random pads, and no date-dependent shortcuts, which keeps teaching fixtures and CI goldens stable. A classic check is WEAREDISCOVEREDFLEEATONCE under key ZEBRAS encrypting to a well-known ciphertext that decrypts back under the same keyword. Use it free in the browser for history-of-crypto lessons, puzzle design, and reversible lab demos, or call the API at $0.002 per successful request when pipelines need reproducible columnar transforms.

How to use it

Enter your values in the form above. The tool checks them before calculating and shows the result on the same page.

Check your inputs

Use the labels and units shown next to each field. If something is missing or outside the allowed range, the page points to the field to fix.

Use it again or automate it

Use the browser tool for individual checks and the API when you need the same capability in an automated workflow.

What you can do with it

Get an answer now

Enter one set of values and see the result without building a spreadsheet or script.

Compare scenarios

Change one value at a time and rerun the calculation to understand what affects the result.

Automate repeated work

Use the API when the same calculation needs to run inside your product or workflow.

FAQ

How do I use this capability?

Complete the fields above and run it on this page. The form highlights anything that needs attention.

For developers — API access

Everything on this page is available programmatically. This section is for teams who want to wire it into their own systems; everyone else can just use the tool above.

API endpoint

POSThttps://api.kit.forhosting.com/enc/columnar

Prefer to automate it? One authenticated POST creates the task; the result comes back by webhook or a signed link. The same capability also runs here on the web, by email and from Telegram — and soon from our app too.

Call it from your stack

curl -X POST https://api.kit.forhosting.com/enc/columnar \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $KIT_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"text":"WEAREDISCOVEREDFLEEATONCE","key":"ZEBRAS"}'

const res = await fetch("https://api.kit.forhosting.com/enc/columnar", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "Authorization": `Bearer ${process.env.KIT_KEY}`,
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    "text": "WEAREDISCOVEREDFLEEATONCE",
    "key": "ZEBRAS"
  })
});
const { task_id } = await res.json();

import os, requests

res = requests.post(
    "https://api.kit.forhosting.com/enc/columnar",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['KIT_KEY']}"},
    json={
    "text": "WEAREDISCOVEREDFLEEATONCE",
    "key": "ZEBRAS"
},
)
task_id = res.json()["task_id"]

<?php
$res = file_get_contents("https://api.kit.forhosting.com/enc/columnar", false, stream_context_create([
  "http" => [
    "method"  => "POST",
    "header"  => "Authorization: Bearer " . getenv("KIT_KEY") . "\r\nContent-Type: application/json",
    "content" => '{"text":"WEAREDISCOVEREDFLEEATONCE","key":"ZEBRAS"}',
  ],
]));
$task = json_decode($res, true);

body := bytes.NewBufferString(`{"text":"WEAREDISCOVEREDFLEEATONCE","key":"ZEBRAS"}`)
req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", "https://api.kit.forhosting.com/enc/columnar", body)
req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+os.Getenv("KIT_KEY"))
req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
res, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)

Example request

{
  "text": "WEAREDISCOVEREDFLEEATONCE",
  "key": "ZEBRAS"
}

Example response

{
  "task_id": "tsk_a1b2c3d4e5f6a1b2c3d4e5f6",
  "type": "enc.columnar",
  "status": "queued",
  "_links": {
    "result": "/tasks/tsk_…/result"
  }
}

The API is asynchronous: the call returns a task_id immediately and the result arrives by webhook. Polling is capped at 1 req/s per task.

Pricing

Per request$0.002

Published price — no tokens, no invented credits. A failed task is never charged.

Errors

HTTP	Code	Meaning
`401`	`unauthorized`	Missing or invalid API key.
`402`	`insufficient_balance`	Your balance doesn't cover the task price.
`404`	`unknown_type`	That task type doesn't exist.
`429`	`rate_limited`	Too many requests. Use the webhook instead of polling.

Read the full KIT documentation →

Run — free