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. 3D AGO

    Bun v1.2: SQL, YAML & Security Scans

    Last episode, we lamented Claude’s lack of checkpoints to roll back code when it goes off the rails. Other devs feel the same, and this week Checkpoints for Claude Code debuted. It’s an MCP server that follows Claude Code, creating checkpoints when tasks are completed, allowing for easy reverts when needed. The Bun team quietly pushed some nice new features in Bun v1.2. Highlights include: a unified SQL client with zero dependencies, native YAML file support, OS native credential storage for secrets, and a security scanner API that scans packages for vulnerabilities before installation. And MCP-UI, a toolkit of interactive UI components for MCP has new features to support resources beyond text like embedded iframes and even raw HTML. Not all agents with MCP support can handle these new resources, but if they can, users can see product photos, data visualizations, and other mini sites right in their AI chat. In the Lightning News section for this week, the folks at Deno leading the charge to get Oracle to relinquish its trademark for JavaScript need our help. Those legal bills aren’t going to pay themselves and Deno’s pockets aren’t nearly as deep as Oracle’s, so if you care about making JavaScript public domain (which it absolutely should be), please consider donating so they can keep fighting the good fight to free JS. Every little bit helps. Timestamps: 00:48 - Claude Code thinking modes & checkpoints10:33 - Bun v1.217:04 - MCP-UI updates23:06 - Claude for Chrome28:12 - Donate to help Deno fight Oracle30:24 - What’s making us happyLinks: Paige - Bun v1.2Jack - MCP-UI updatesTJ - Claude Code Thinking Modes & Claude Code CheckpointsClaude for ChromeDonate to help Deno keep fighting Oracle in courtPaige - Zima Dental PodJack - Foundation TV seriesTJ - Babe Ruth commits fraudThanks 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

  2. AUG 25

    Alchemy: IaC Without Terraform

    The latest craze for MCP this week? Instead of multiple MCP servers with different tools, use an MCP server that accepts programming code as tool inputs - a single “ubertool” if you will. AI agents like Claude Code are pretty good at writing code, but letting the agent write and execute code to invoke API functions instead of using a defined MCP server doesn’t seem like the most efficient use of LLM tokens, but it's another approach to consider. In infrastructure news, there’s a library called Alchemy that lets devs write their Infrastructure as Code in pure TypeScript. No Terraform files, no dependencies, just async functions, stored in plain JSON files, that runs anywhere JS can run. For web devs, the future of IaC has arrived. Next.js has made their last big release before v16 in the form of 15.5. Highlights of this minor release include: production turbopack builds, stable support for the Node.js runtime in middleware, fully typed routes, and deprecation warnings in preparation for Next.js 16. Timestamps: 00:57 - Dangers of the “ubertool”09:54 - Alchemy Infrastructure as Code (IaC)15:27 - Next.js 15.524:57 - How CodeRabbit AI got hacked27:48 - 32:37 - Claudia41:31 - hidden=until-found45:26 - What’s making us happyLinks: Paige - Alchemy Infrastructure as Code (IaC)Jack - Dangers of the “ubertool”TJ - Next.js 15.5How CodeRabbit AI got hackedClaudiahidden=until-foundPaige - The Art Thief bookJack - Alien: Earth TV seriesTJ - Pips NYT gameThanks 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

    55 min

  3. AUG 18

    TanStack Devtools: One Panel to Rule Them All

    You just can’t keep TanStack out of the news for more than a few weeks before a new product appears. This week, it’s TanStack Devtools, which provides a centralized devtools panel of all the Tanstack libraries for streamlined DX and custom devtools support. The State of CSS 2025 survey results are in, and highlights include: devs love the new `:has()` feature, Tailwind CSS continues to be the most popular CSS framework, and over 60% of respondents are still using Sass or SCSS in their web apps. Continuing the CSS topics, Panda CSS, a CSS-in-JS library that debuted in 2023, just hit v1. Panda gained traction by being a CSS-in-JS library built for the server-first era (meaning RSC support), and it adds new features like static analysis, type safety, and support for modern CSS like cascade layers, JSX style props, and a `createStyleContext` API for cross-framework design systems. Timestamps: 0:56 - TanStack Devtools6:28 - State of CSS 2025 survey results15:23 - Panda CSS v123:19 - Perplexity wants to buy Chrome from Google25:52 - Google Gemini is having a mental breakdown30:50 - Bolt.new unveils Bolt Cloud35:14 - The dialog element’s closedby attribute39:20 - What’s making us happyLinks: Paige - Panda CSS v1 Jack - TanStack DevtoolsTJ - State of CSS 2025 survey resultsPerplexity wants to buy Chrome from GoogleGoogle Gemini’s having a mental breakdownBolt.new unveils Bolt CloudThe dialog element’s `closedby` attributePaige - Express VPNJack - A Psalm for the Wild Built bookTJ - The Retrievals podcast and The Savannah Bananas baseball teamThanks 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. AUG 11

    TanStack DB: Reactive Apps Without Firebase

    There’s drama brewing between AI-answer engine company Perplexity and hosting platform Cloudflare, which recently declared it would actively block AI bots from crawling websites without the owners’ permission. Cloudflare received complaints, set up its own test sites, and then asked Perplexity pointed questions only - and got answers! Not a great look, Perplexity. Two years after Vercel launched v1 of its AI SDK, it has dropped v5, and it’s got some major improvements. Rebuilt chat hooks, improved tool calling, more agentic controls, and it works with React, Svelte, Vue, and Angular. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, but it seems like Vercel’s got a winner on its hands. Never one to rest on its laurels, the team behind the TanStack universe unveils TanStack DB. TanStack DB extends TanStack Query with collections, live queries and optimistic mutations client side for building super fast apps on sync without needing a Firebase subscription In Lightning News this week, OpenAI released GTP-5. It’s better at all the things: writing, coding, and health questions, but are the improvements going to be so great we’ll actually notice? Time will tell.  Also, in disappointing news, Cognition, the AI company that scooped up the remains of Windsurf, has laid off the Windsurf employees it acquired, or told those who remain to expect 80-hour, six day a week, work weeks: another way to effectively reduce headcount. Let’s hope this doesn’t set a new precedent in Silicon Valley. Timestamps: 00:53 - Drama between Cloudflare and Perplexity09:15 - Vercel AI SDK 515:23 - TanStack DB update19:28 - GPT-525:23 - A not-so-great Windsurf & Cognition update30:51 - What’s making us happyLinks: Paige - Vercel AI SDK 5Jack - TanStack DBTJ - Drama between Cloudflare and PerplexityOpenAI GPT-5 arrivesA not-great Windsurf & Cognition updateIllinois blocks AI from being your therapistA Guide To Hover And Pointer Media Queries (Smashing Magazine)Paige - The Retrievals podcastJack - Creality CR-Scan Otter 3D ScannerTJ - People I (Mostly) AdmineThanks 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

    46 min

  5. AUG 4

    Is es-toolkit the Lodash Killer?

    There’s a new utility library in town called es-toolkit, and it’s gunning for Lodash. 2-3x faster, 97% smaller, full TypeScript support, and using modern JavaScript APIs, es-toolkit’s just added a “Lodash compatibility layer” to ensure an identical API and 100% Lodash compatibility. oRPC is the newest wrinkle in the Remote Procedural Call (RPC) world, and it promotes easy to build APIs that are end-to-end type-safe and adhere to OpenAPI standards.  Stack Overflow’s 15th developer survey results are in, and the learnings are... interesting. Some of the takeaways are expected (React’s still very popular, lots of devs have at least tried AI tools), but some seem willfully wrong (SO claims it’s a new resource for devs that need to solve AI-related issues, but 43% of respondents said they rarely or never visit the site anymore).  Either way, SO’s use has declined dramatically over the last few years due to the rise of AI, and we’ll see how much longer it can hang on as a vital part of the developer ecosystem. Timestamps: 0:57 - es-toolkit update7:46 - oRPC17:13 - Stack Overflow Developer Survey31:43 - Bolt hackathon winners34:11 - Microsoft Edge Copilot Mode38:46 - State of HTML survey39:30 - What’s making us happyLinks: Paige - es-toolkit is coming for LodashJack - oRPCTJ - Stack Overflow 2025 survey resultsBolt hackathon winnersMicrosoft Edge Copilot ModeState of HTML surveyPaige - Monopoly Deal card gameJack - Gridfinity 3D printed grid storage systemTJ - NY Times Games AppThanks 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

    48 min

  6. JUL 28

    Is Open Source Software Infrastructure?

    GitHub is advocating for a European Union Sovereign Tech Fund to help pay the open source software developers building and maintaining software relied upon by economies and societies just like any other necessary infrastructure like roads and bridges. Apple gets called out by the Open Web Advocacy group saying its technical rules and restrictions are blocking other browser vendors from successfully offering their own search engines to iOS users in the EU. Last episode we talked about Amazon’s new AI coding editor Kiro, and this week, we learned about a feature called Agent Hooks which let users write automation tools that agents can use within the IDE to do predefined actions like maintaining code quality, checking for security vulnerabilities, standardizing and enforcing team processes, and more. Think of it like pre-commit hooks but with AI behind them! Timestamps: 0:51 - GitHub is advocating for an EU tech fund9:21 - An update on non-WebKit browsers on iOS15:30 - Kiro’s agent hooks26:28 - Kilo Code28:35 - eslint-config-prettier got hacked33:15 - @media(hover: hover)36:05 - What’s making us happyLinks: Paige - GitHub is advocating for an EU Sovereign Tech FundJack - Kiro’s Agent HooksTJ - An update on non-WebKit browsers on iOSKilo Code - open source AI agent VS Code extension (not to be confused with the Kiro fork)Popular npm package eslint-config-prettier got hacked@media(hover:hover)Paige - Relax Meditation appJack - Physical books like the Annihilation seriesTJ - Apple Watch series 10Thanks 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

    46 min

  7. JUL 21

    Windsurf’s 72-Hour Power Shuffle

    There are so many headlines about AI IDE Windsurf as of late, but we’ll try to catch you up.  First, OpenAI wanted to buy Windsurf for $3B, but the deal fell through due to Microsoft. Next, Google hired Windsurf’s top execs and researchers to work on its AI products, but didn’t buy the Windsurf IDE, for $2.4B. Then, Cognition bought the remainder of Windsurf’s IP (and its staff) to integrate into its own products like Devin. And did we mention this all happened in the span of 72 hours? Amazon released its own AI-powered IDE called Kiro, and it claims it will bring structure to vibe-coding with "specs" to appeal to the enterprise companies. Kiro transforms prompts into structured specifications, technical designs, and implementation plans complete with testing. Next.js 15.4 debuted with a few notable highlights like 100% integration test compatibility for its new Turbopack bundler, and an experimental feature flag called `browserDebugInfoInTerminal` that will forward browser console output to the local terminal so CLI coding agents and AI IDEs like Cursor can see (and fix) client side errors. That sounds super useful. Timestamps: 1:07 - Windsurf drama explained11:28 - Amazon’s new Kiro editor26:29 - Next 15.433:33 - Figma’s new glass effect39:19 - Lee Robinson leaves Vercel41:09 - What’s making us happyLinks: Paige - Next.js 15.4, including `browserDebugInfoInTerminal` flag for AI agentsJack - Kiro AI IDE for spec-driven developmentTJ - OpenAI’s Windsurf deal falls through - and Windsurf’s CEO is going to GoogleLee Robinson leaves Vercel after 5 yearsFigma has Glass EffectPaige - The Will of the Many novelJack - Ninja Single Serve coffee maker and SF Bay Coffee compostable K-cupsTJ - Tabletop shuffleboardThanks 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

  8. JUL 14

    Vercel Acquires Nuxt and Nitro

    Tech companies continue the acquisition spree of the summer when Vercel announces it’s hired the creators of NuxtLabs, the folks who build metaframework Nuxt and server runtime Nitro. Figma returns to the newscycle with the introduction of its Dev Mode MCP server. This server allows agentic coding tools to pull in design context directly from Figma designs. Think: getting code, image, or variable context for a specific design selection or even porting over Figma designs directly into a code base for use. The AI browser race heats up as both OpenAI and Perplexity make news with announcements and early access for their own AI-powered web browsers. Details are limited but both companies are putting their AI search engines front and center to try and steal some Google Chrome’s market share. In this week’s Lightning News, there’s a new framework for building and shipping MCP applications called Xmcp. Focused on developer experience, Xmcp claims you can bootstrap an MCP server from scratch or plug it into an existing Next.js or Express app with one simple command.  Finally, the Fire Starters section is back this week with the debut of CSS conditional if() statements in Chrome v137. Out of the box, if() works with style(), media(), and support() queries, and unlocks things like state-based styling with very straightforward syntax that uses a series of condition-value pairs, and even allows for an else statement at the end. Timestamps: 1:13 - Vercel acquires NuxtLabs5:54 - Figma releases an MCP Server13:41 - OpenAI and Perplexity announce browsers26:08 - Xmcp framework29:06 - CSS conditions with if()33:05 - What’s making us happyLinks: Paige - NuxtLabs joins VercelJack - Figma Dev Mode MCP server TJ - Upcoming web browsers from OpenAI and Perplexity. Xmcp framework for building MCP applicationsCSS conditionals with if() statementsPaige - Somebody Feed Phil TV seriesTJ - MurderbotThanks 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
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Trailer

4.4
out of 5
11 Ratings

About

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

Information

  • Creator
    TJ VanToll, Paige Niedringhaus, Jack Herrington
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2025
  • Episodes
    112
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Front-End Fire
  • Show Website
    Front-End Fire

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