Nucleic acid detection is an important method for pathogen identification but can be expensive, have variable sensitivity and specificity, and require substantial infrastructure. Two new methods capitalize on unexpected in vitro properties of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) effectors, turning activated nucleases into intrinsic amplifiers of a specific nucleic-acid binding event. These effectors are coupled with a variety of reporters and used in tandem with existing isothermal amplification methods to produce sensitive, sequence-specific pathogen identification in multiple field-deployable formats. While still in their infancy, these modular CRISPR-based methods have the potential to transform pathogen identification and other aspects of infectious disease diagnostics.