Front-End Fire

TJ VanToll, Paige Niedringhaus, Jack Herrington

A weekly show that helps you stay up to date on the latest and greatest in the front-end world.

  1. 2 DGN GELEDEN

    131: OpenClaw and the Wild West of Autonomous AI Agents

    Malicious code is making its way into VS Code extensions this week, as two Chinese-based AI coding assistants are identified as capturing every file on a user’s computer and sending it to servers in China without their knowledge or consent. Please just be cautious about what you’re installing on your machines, folks. In related news, the Deno team has introduced Deno sandboxes to create and deploy secure, isolated VMs in the cloud. Strict permissions, network policies, directories, and isolated secrets—make these sandboxes great for AI agents, or any other dynamic workload where speed and security are paramount. And the software going viral this week is OpenClaw (aka Clawdbot aka Moltbot), which is an open source, autonomous AI agent that runs locally on a user’s machine. OpenClaw can connect to LLMs and perform tasks like managing emails, scheduling, reorganizing local files or other daily tasks, and is designed to be proactive rather than just reacting to prompts. It’s truly the Wild West giving an AI agent access to read all the files on a machine or respond to emails on its own, so be careful out there, folks. Timestamps: 1:07 - VS Code AI plugins are stealing data10:47 - Deno sandboxes16:09 - OpenClaw43:41 - More Gemini features are coming to Chrome45:33 - Apple containers46:44 - What’s making us happyNews: Paige - VS Code AI plugins are stealing all the data of users computers (silently)Jack - Deno sandboxesTJ - OpenClaw (aka Clawdbot aka Moltbot) and our lack of trust for AI agentsLightning News:  More Gemini features are coming to ChromeApple ContainersWhat Makes Us Happy this Week: Paige - Claude CodeJack - Sneakers movieTJ - Firefox browserThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

    57 min

  2. 2 FEB

    130: TanStack Start Embraces RSC—Minus the Security Nightmares

    You heard it here first, folks, RSC support is now available in TanStack Start! Since TanStack Start supports not only React but also Solid, it handles serialization differently, meaning the critical security vulnerabilities RSC-enabled React apps have been suffering from lately won’t affect TanStack apps. Yarn 6 was recently announced, and (surprise, surprise) it’s going to be ported to Rust. Get ready for blazing fast installs, the ability to easily switch between Yarn versions, and lazy installs to silently keep dependency versions in sync with the package.json.  Also on the Rust bandwagon is the VoidZero team with Rolldown 1.0 RC. Rolldown is the bundler successor to Rollup, and boasts 10-30x faster speeds than Rollup while maintaining API plugin compatibility, built-in transforms, and native CJS/ESM interoperability. All hail the perf gains of JS tools written in Rust. Timestamps: 1:20 - TanStack Start RSC4:15 - Yarn 6 and Rust12:03 - Rolldown 1.0 RC16:38 - More RSC CVEs23:19 - Mozilla is building an AI “rebel alliance”30:05 - What’s making us happyNews: Paige - Rolldown 1.0 RCJack - TanStack Start RSCTJ - Yarn 6 and RustLightning News:  Another day, another RSC CVEMozilla’s building an AI “rebel alliance”What Makes Us Happy this Week: Paige - Landman season 2Jack - VaselineTJ - ChatGPT continuing to help me around the houseThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

    42 min

  3. 26 JAN

    129: The Era of Humans Writing Code is Over

    jQuery is the JavaScript library that just won’t quit. 20 years after its inception the team released jQuery 4.0.0, and it brings some notable modernizations including removed support for IE 10, a migration to ES modules, and support for Trusted Types.  Node.js creator Ryan Dahl declared earlier this week that “the era of humans writing code is over”, and considering how good AI coding agents have gotten lately, he’s probably not wrong.  Cloudflare also announces it has acquired popular JavaScript framework Astro. Cloudflare has been a good steward to other OSS projects in the past, and this acquisition allows the Astro team to focus on making the framework even better. Timestamps: 0:50 - jQuery 4.07:58 - Is the era of humans writing code over?18:23 - Cloudflare acquires Astro24:54 - Vertical tabs are coming to Chrome29:37 - Apple is going to use Gemini for Siri43:07 - What’s making us happyNews: Paige - Ryan Dahl declares humans writing code is overJack - Cloudflare acquires AstroTJ - jQuery 4.0Lightning News:  Chrome adds support for vertical tabsApple and Google enter agreement to use Gemini for Apple IntelligenceWhat Makes Us Happy this Week: Paige - Onyx Storm bookJack - Learning to play Born to Run on guitarTJ - Only Murders in the Building TV series and Dungeon Crawler Carl book seriesThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

    51 min

  4. 19 JAN

    128: What the Heck is a Ralph Wiggum Loop?

    A new year, a new tactic to stem the flow of npm supply chain attacks. This time, the proposal is for “Staged Publishing” which introduces a review window that a package owner must approve before a package release becomes publicly available. Vercel Labs is out with a new AI tool called json-render that lets users generate dashboards, widgets, apps, and data visualizations from prompts, and constrains the response to JSON for only components pre-defined by the user. Finally, The Simpsons character Ralph Wiggum is the biggest thing in AI coding recently. Ralph is an AI development pattern using a while loop (like a bash script) to repeatedly run an AI agent on the same task, feeding its output back as context, and forcing it to iterate until a specific completion promise is met, rather than letting the AI stop prematurely. Interesting? Yes! Useful in practice? Still tbd. Chapter Markers: 1:04 - npm to implement staged publishing8:16 - Vercel’s json-render16:13 - Ralph Wiggum loops30:53 - Claude Code tips33:52 - Firefox 147 and anchor positioning35:42 - Fire starter39:40 - What’s making us happyNews: Paige - npm to implement Staged PublishingJack - Vercel Labs’ json-renderTJ - Ralph Wiggum loopsLightning News:  Firefox 147 and anchor positioningFire Starters: CSS @container scroll-state()What Makes Us Happy this Week: Paige - Rolife Book Nook Garden House miniatureJack - Blade Runner live at the symphonyTJ - Coffee advent calendarsThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

    47 min

  5. 12 JAN

    127: Are People Leaving Next.js for TanStack Start?

    We’re back with our first episode of 2026, and prominent software developer and YouTuber, Theo Browne, made waves recently when he announced he’d migrated his T3 Chat app from the Next.js framework to TanStack Start. It isn’t that Next.js is bad, but that the requirements of T3 Chat were better supported by TanStack Start’s architecture, and Theo breaks down his evaluation process to reach that decision. For the 10th year in a row, the JavaScript Rising Stars report drops, and the most popular projects (by GitHub stars) for the year include n8n (a workflow automation platform), react-bits (gorgeous animated React components), shadcn/ui (more UI components), and Excalidraw (virtual whiteboard for sketching and diagramming). In less stellar news, the creator of the wildly popular CSS library Tailwind announced he’s had to lay off 75% of his engineering team because AI has killed traffic to its website (and by association, Tailwind’s commercial products that drive revenue). It was hard enough before the rise of AI for OSS to get funding, and this is just another cautionary tale that we need to support the people building the tools and products so many of us use every day in our jobs. Timestamps: 1:54 - Theo moves off Next.js and resulting buzz11:32 - A look at the 2025 JS rising stars23:25 - Is AI hurting Tailwind?31:03 - Lego smart bricks35:45 - What’s making us happy News: Paige - Is AI killing OSS now? Tailwind thinks soJack - Theo moved off Next.js to TanStack Start and the internet is buzzing TJ - 2025 rising starsLightning News:  Lego smart bricksWhat Makes Us Happy this Week: Paige - Flip-It! Bottle emptying capsJack - Miami Hurricanes football team TJ - New Pokemon GO featuresThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

    47 min

  6. 22-12-2025

    126: The 2025 Holiday Spectacular

    It’s that time of year again: the holidays are nearly upon us and 2026 is fast approaching, so it’s time for our year end holiday spectacular! This year our past predictions for the future of web development come back to haunt us, we make some bold new proclamations for what’s in store for 2026, and of course, share what’s made us happy this year. Our past predictions were pretty hit or miss. Although a surge in popularity for simpler frontend frameworks like SolidJS and a whole slew of new web APIs didn’t appear (as Jack and Paige predicted), AI agents evolving to be capable of implementing whole new features and debugging bigger problems in code was spot on (point goes to TJ). Predictions for 2026? With the continued popularity of AI for coding, TJ believes we’ll treat HTML more like assembly code. Paige predicts an uptick in Internet outages and supply chain attacks, and more scrutiny of if AI features are really as valuable as we’ve been led to believe. Jack feels this is the year SolidJS takes off, and “code mode” for AI agents is going to add even more value than the creation of MCP servers last year. Just like last year, the things that made us happiest are pretty simple: maintaining consistent routines like exercising, reading books, and stepping away from the keyboard. And using the tools often used for work for fun, creative projects like a homemade fanfiction audiobook. And as always, thank you, Front-end Fire listeners! We wouldn’t be here without you, and we’ve enjoyed getting to know many of you more over the past year. Wishing you a wonderful holiday season, and we’ll be back in 2026 with more frontend goodness. Timestamps: 2:36 - Revisiting old predictions18:01 - 2026 predictions39:26 - What’s making us happy2024 Predictions Revisited: Paige - New web APIsJack - A return to simplicity in coding frameworksTJ - AI agents solving bigger coding problems2026 Predictions:  Paige - More tech attacks and less AI hype, more AI scrutinyJack - SolidJS 2.0 and “code mode” is going to unlock even more AI agent functionalityTJ - We start treating HTML like assembly codeWhat Makes Us Happy this Year: Paige - Consistent routines (as boring as that sounds): regular exercise, regularly practicing hobbies and reading books Jack - Descript and Claude for a homemade fanfic audiobookTJ - Reading booksThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

    52 min

  7. 15-12-2025

    125: The RSC Vulnerabilities Keep Coming

    Hot on the heels of the first critical vulnerability discovered in React applications using RSCs last week, two more vulnerabilities have surfaced, which is not uncommon. Even if you already updated for the critical vulnerability, you will need to update again. In lighter news, Anthropic donates MCP to the Agentic AI Foundation, just one year after introducing it to the world. MCP’s rise has been meteoric: 10,000 active public MCP servers, adoption by ChatGPT, Cursor, Gemini, Copilot, VS Code, and more, and now stewardship by the AAIF, which is under the Linux Foundation. With all the great things coming to CSS lately, the Chrome Dev team created a great CSS Wrapped write up highlighting the big features for 2025. Of the 22 new features added, invoker commands, popover enhancements, and customizable select dropdowns are some of the most exciting additions. Timestamps: 2:29 - More vulnerabilities in RSCs6:36 - Anthropic donates MCP to the Agentic AI Foundation16:04 - CSS 2025 wrap up25:05 - Disney to allow characters on Sora29:42 - What’s making us happyNews: Paige - Anthropic donates MCP to the Agentic AI FoundationJack - More vulnerabilities in RSCs discoveredTJ - CSS Wrapped 2025Lightning News:  Disney will allow characters on Sora AI video generatorWhat Makes Us Happy this Week: Paige - Twinkly Christmas LightsJack - 3D printed underwear for the multiboard desk organizationTJ - MammothThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

    41 min

  8. 08-12-2025

    124: TanStack Enters the AI Arena—Meet TanStack AI

    This week TanStack joins the AI wars with the alpha release of TanStack AI: an open-source AI SDK with a unified interface across multiple providers. TanStack AI is an open-source ecosystem of libraries and standards, and it is client, server, and AI provider agnostic, to make building AI-enabled apps accessible to all. In a surprise move, AI company Anthropic acquires JavaScript runtime Bun to accelerate its development of Claude Code. Apparently, Bun has been central to Claude Code reaching $1 billion in run-rate revenue in just six months, and Anthropic’s brought the team in house to keep the momentum going. And it’s been another rough week for security in JavaScript. First, a new self-replicating, credential stealing malware attack, dubbed Shai-Hulud 2.0, swept the npm ecosystem and compromised 800 npm packages in the process, and then a critical security vulnerability was discovered for any React projects using React Server Components. Just remember to lock down your dependencies and install those patches ASAP, folks. Timestamps: 1:22 - TanStack AI9:12 - Anthropic buys Bun21:03 - Shai-Hulul 2.0 on npm and an RSC vulnerability30:23 - What’s making us happyNews: Paige - Shai-Hulud 2.0 on npm and RSC vulnerabilityJack - TanStack AITJ - Anthropic buys Bun (Bun post) (Anthropic post)What Makes Us Happy this Week: Paige - The Durrells TV seriesJack - Essentialism bookTJ - Dungeon Crawler Carl book seriesThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

    45 min
Bekijk alles (132)

Trailer

Info

A weekly show that helps you stay up to date on the latest and greatest in the front-end world.

Informatie

  • Maker
    TJ VanToll, Paige Niedringhaus, Jack Herrington
  • Jaren actief
    2023 - 2026
  • Afleveringen
    132
  • Beoordeling
    Veilig
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Front-End Fire
  • Website van aflevering
    Front-End Fire

Suggesties voor jou