Modernization Agents, Standard Schema V1, and Year-end Podcast Wins | News | Ep 49

Our last episode for 2025, see you in 2026! News for the week of December 15 2025: Microsoft's experimental JS/TS modernization agent, new Next.js and Bun releases, and how pnpm is tightening the security screws. From the community: when to use types vs. interfaces, actionable tips on securing your local dev environment, and tips on using TypeScript types as a programming language.

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• Homepage and Docs: https://excaliburjs.com
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• Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/9UemP985Uy

Chapters

• (00:00) - Welcome to the Show
• (05:18) - News: TSGo Now Supports Experimental Decorators
• (06:18) - News: JS/TS Modernization Agent for VS Code
• (09:47) - News: Next.js 16.1 Brings Turbopack Caching and a Build Analyzer
• (10:32) - News: Bun 1.3.5 ft. Terminal Simulator, Compile-time Feature Flags
• (12:50) - News: Standard Schema V1 Released
• (14:24) - News: pnpm 10.26 Has Stricter Security Defaults
• (16:16) - News: Node Security Updates Pushed to Jan 7
• (16:52) - Library Watch: numpy-ts, NumPy but in 100% TypeScript
• (18:57) - Library Watch: tinypdf and tinydocx, Minimal Document Creation
• (20:02) - Community Highlight: npm Security Best Practices by Liran Tal
• (23:10) - Community Highlight: TypeScript Types as a Programming Language by Thiery Michel
• (24:46) - Community Highlight: Build a Dino Runner in Deno, pt 3
• (25:26) - Community Highlight: Types vs. Interfaces by Yan Sun
• (26:31) - Community Highlight: Eleventy's Progress on Zero Config TS
• (27:10) - Bleets of the Week
• (28:24) - Cool Link: noclip.website Lets You Explore Retro Game Levels
• (29:46) - Cool Tool: unplugin-inline-functions for Inlining Functions
• (31:48) - Cool Tool: rsdoctor, Analyze Rspack and Webpack Bundles
• (33:26) - The Minnesota Year-long Goodbye

News

• Excalibur.js V0.32.0 holiday release
• TSGo PR #2343 adds experimental decorators support
• Microsoft: Announcing the JavaScript/TypeScript Modernizer for VS Code
• Next.js 16.1 adds Turbopack improvements
• Bun: 1.3.5 release terminal simulator (PTY) and compile-time feature flag dead-code elimination
• Standard Schema V1 release (h/t ArkType and Josh Goldberg) 
• Library Watch: https://www.npmjs.com/package/numpy-ts
• Library Watch: Lulzx/tinydocx: Minimal DOCX/ODT creation library
• Library Watch: Lulzx/tinypdf: Minimal PDF creation library

From the Community

• Liran Tal: NPM Security Best Practices: How to Protect Your Packages After the 2025 Shai Hulud Attack
• Thiery Michel via MarmeLab: TypeScript Types as a Programming Language 
• Deno Runner, Part 3: Build a dinosaur runner game with Deno, pt. 3 
• Yan Sun via LogRocket: Types vs. interfaces in TypeScript 
• Zach Leatherman: 11ty Zero Config TypeScript

Cool Links

• Cool Plugin: krispya/unplugin-inline-functions - Vite/unplugin for C/C++ style inlining 
• Cool Link: NoClip.website lets you fly around classic game levels like Super Paper Mario, Majora's Mask, and Mario Kart Wii
• Cool Tool: rsdoctor is a bundle analyzer for Rspack-family of tools (and webpack!)

Music
Seahorse Dreams by Kubbi (Spotify)