Front-End Fire

Hosted by TJ VanToll, Paige Niedringhaus, Jack Herrington

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Episodes

167

Latest episode

Oct 2026

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EN-US

About the show

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

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60 recent

October 26, 2026Episode 16752 min

167: AI is Making Code Reviews Worse

AI is generating more code than ever, and reviewing it has become a lonelier, more exhausting slog. This week we dig into whether ideas like shared review sessions can actually make code review better. Then we run through a brutal week of hacks hitting OpenCode, PHP, Next.js, and TLS certificates, count the many new TypeScript forks, and look at the custom source control Anthropic built to merge 30,000 changes a day. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 1:31 - How can we make code review better? 19:45 - A roundup of this week’s hacks 30:04 - Claude Duet 34:31 - Everyone is forking TypeScript 41:05 - Anthropic’s new source control tool 47:00 - What’s making us happy News All: Code reviews suck, but how do we actually make them better? Lightning News Hacks! OpenCode hacked , PHP hacked , new CVEs in Next.js and React , eMudhra certificate hacks Who isn’t forking TypeScript?? ts-rust , bun check , tsc-ts , tsrs , and the OG TS team dropped TS 7.1 beta Claude Duet: Anthropic’s Muse or Dots Anthropic’s new source control What's Making Us Happy Paige: Ted Lasso season 4 TJ: Vibe coded game ticket tracking site Thanks 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 website Blue Collar Coder on YouTube Blue Collar Coder on Discord Reach out via email Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

October 19, 2026Episode 1661 hr 5 min

166: The AI Clone Wars Continue

The AI clone wars continue. The developer who vibe-coded replacements for Adobe's Creative Suite last week is back, this time with open-source clones of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. How long before the cease-and-desist letters start arriving? We also dig into the newly stable TanStack Start 1.0, check out what's new in OpenCode 2.0, and take a look at Meta's new Wonder models and what they mean for AI agents. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 1:00 - TanStack Start 1.0 18:37 - The Office suite has been vibe cloned now too 31:11 - OpenCode 2.0 41:00 - Meta’s new “Wonder” models 50:48 - What’s making us happy News Paige: OpenCode 2.0 Jack: TanStack Start 1.0 is stable TJ: The Office suite has been vibe cloned now too (and this legal writeup ) Lightning News Meta’s new “Wonder” models Anthropic redesigns source control What's Making Us Happy Paige: Whirlyball Jack: University of Miami football TJ: Video podcasts Thanks 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 website Blue Collar Coder on YouTube Blue Collar Coder on Discord Reach out via email Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

October 12, 2026Episode 16555 min

165: Open Source Was Fun While It Lasted

Open source was fun while it lasted. AI-generated submissions are swamping maintainers and bug bounty programs, so the gates are closing, and we can’t say we blame the people closing them. We also dig into Pi 1.0 and the new Pi Durable framework, and a dev who used Claude to reverse engineer Adobe Creative Suite and release it as open source. Plus: Deno joins Cloudflare, and an ice cream map that divided us. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 1:45 - OSS maintainers and companies are shutting off PRs and bug bounty programs 9:07 - Pi 1.0 16:06 - Someone vibe coded a free knockoff of Adobe Creative Suite 36:31 - Deno is joining Cloudflare 39:53 - example.com changes 41:38 - Controversial state-by-state ice cream infographic 46:32 - What's making us happy News Paige: Pi 1.0 and Pi Durable Jack: Someone vibe coded a free knockoff of Adobe Creative Suite TJ: OSS maintainers and companies are shutting off their external PR & bug bounty programs Lightning News Deno is joining Cloudflare example.com changes Controversial state by state ice cream infographic What's Making Us Happy Paige: Black Sails show Jack: OSX shortcut to reorder the menu bar icons TJ: Using AI to clean up old photos Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. Join us in our Discord, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-End Fire website Blue Collar Coder on YouTube Blue Collar Coder on Discord Reach out via email Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

October 5, 2026Episode 16453 min

164: Developers Are Tired of This Sh*t

The State of Devs 2026 survey results are in, and... they’re not great. We discuss. We also dig into a huge week of 1.0 releases (EmDash, Vinext, and Vite+), OpenAI's Dev Day, and more! Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 1:12 - State of Devs 2026 survey 28:26 - EmDash 1.0 30:37 - Vinext 1.0 32:46 - Vite+ 1.0 35:03 - OpenAI Dev Day 40:55 - Agent safety 42:38 - <model> element 46:15 - What's making us happy News All: State of Devs 2026 survey results are in Lightning News Vite+ 1.0 EmDash 1.0 Vinext 1.0 <model> update OpenAI Dev Day Agent safety What's Making Us Happy Paige: Shogun (Asian Saga #1) novel Jack: Hanging with friends and making music TJ: Mike Tomlin's Minecraft city Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. Join us in our Discord, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-End Fire website Blue Collar Coder on YouTube Blue Collar Coder on Discord Reach out via email Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

September 28, 2026Episode 16350 min

163: Do Frameworks Still Matter Anymore?

DHH took the Rails World stage to announce that he and Basecamp are no longer writing code by hand, wouldn't necessarily recommend Rails for a new app, and are going all in on native. That kicks off this week's big question: in an era of agentic coding, do frameworks still matter? We also dig into Safari 27's WebKit release, which is packed with a Safari MCP for agents, customizable selects, the HTML model element, and a pile of CSS improvements. In Lightning News, GitHub Copilot's runtime moved to Rust, and OpenAI's agents hacked an Australian government Medicare portal. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 2:36 - DHH's Rails World Keynote 12:28 - Do frameworks matter anymore? 19:50 - Safari 27 WebKit updates 37:32 - GitHub Copilot's runtime migrated to Rust 39:23 - OpenAI agents hacked an Australian government website 44:30 - What's making us happy News Paige: Safari 27 WebKit updates Jack: Do frameworks matter anymore? TJ: DHH's Rails World Keynote Lightning News GitHub Copilot's runtime migrated to Rust OpenAI agents hacked an Australian government website What's Making Us Happy Paige: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds TV series Jack: Learning Blackbird on guitar TJ: Ted Lasso TV series Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. Join us in our Discord, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-End Fire website Blue Collar Coder on YouTube Blue Collar Coder on Discord Reach out via email Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

September 21, 2026Episode 16255 min

162: Shopify Breaks Up with React Native

The React core team just shipped 19.3 with view transitions, fragment refs, and Context support in server components. A startup called TypeSafe AI is making waves with Jev, a fast, cheap "System One" model built for structured decisions instead of full LLM reasoning. And Shopify is walking away from React Native after six years, heading back to native Swift and Kotlin. We also cover Matt Mullenweg's whirlwind week at Automattic and how white hat hackers used Claude to ethically hack OpenAI. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 1:11 - React 19.3 7:22 - Shopify moves from React Native back to Swift and Kotlin 21:12 - Jev AI model 30:07 - Matt Mullenweg is back at Automattic 33:45 - Claude ethically hacked OpenAI 41:32 - What's making us happy News Paige: React 19.3 Jack: Jev AI model TJ: Shopify moves from React Native back to Swift and Kotlin Lightning News Matt Mullenweg was ousted from Automattic, but days later he was back Claude ethically hacked OpenAI What's Making Us Happy Paige: Great British Bake Off starts next week Jack: Sumo is back in September Basho! TJ: Yesteryear novel Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. Join us in our Discord, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-End Fire website Blue Collar Coder on YouTube Blue Collar Coder on Discord Reach out via email Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

September 14, 2026Episode 16144 min

161: Tailwind Has a New Home

There are finally some real-world consequences for the Shai-Hulud npm attacks: Australian Federal Police and the FBI arrested two men behind TeamPCP, a group that's been running supply chain attacks using npm since last year. Meanwhile, the open source acquihire train rolls on as Shopify buys Tailwind CSS. In Lightning News the WordPress/WP Engine saga returns as Matt Mullenweg is ousted as Automattic CEO, an Anthropic researcher quits with a warning that AI could kill us all inside a decade, and OpenAI claims it cracked a millennium math problem with 10,000 agents and 88 hours of compute. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 1:08 - Shopify buys Tailwind 7:24 - Two men arrested for Shai-Hulud hacks 15:35 - Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg placed on leave of absence 23:37 - AI researchers think AI will kill us all 32:04 - OpenAI cracks a math millennium problem 39:44 - What's making us happy News Paige: Shopify buys Tailwind TJ: Two men arrested for the TeamPCP Shai-Hulud supply chain attacks on npm Lightning News Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg placed on leave of absence AI researchers think AI will kill us all OpenAI cracks math millennium problem What's Making Us Happy Paige: Reacher TV series TJ: Wake Up Dead Man movie Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. Join us in our Discord, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-End Fire website Blue Collar Coder on YouTube Blue Collar Coder on Discord Reach out via email Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

September 7, 2026Episode 1601 hr 2 min

160: GPT-6 vs. Claude 5.1

Both big AI labs shipped their best models yet this week: OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra finally takes computer use seriously, and Anthropic's Fable & Mythos 5.1 land with gains in coding, knowledge work, and long-running tasks. Jack also went down a rabbit hole on how LLM watermarking actually works. Plus a Roomba with two floor-cleaning brains, a website tallying up AI agent felonies, and OpenAI cutting Cursor off from its models. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 1:16 - GPT-6 Astra 11:58 - How LLM watermarking works 29:47 - Fable & Mythos 5.1 41:48 - Felony Bench 43:21 - iRobot unveils the Roomba Duo 45:51 - OpenAI blocks Cursor 48:27 - What's making us happy News Paige: Anthropic debuts Fable & Mythos 5.1 Jack: How LLM watermarking works TJ: GPT-6 Astra Lightning News OpenAI blocks Cursor after its acquisition by SpaceX iRobot unveils the Roomba Duo Felony Bench What's Making Us Happy Paige: Silo TV series, season 3 Jack: Kenwood CarPlay Unit TJ: Pablo Torre Finds Out Thanks 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 website Blue Collar Coder on YouTube Blue Collar Coder on Discord Reach out via email Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

August 31, 2026Episode 15953 min

159: Is AI Making Us Worse Devs?

This week we're asking the uncomfortable question: is AI coding making us worse developers, or just changing which skills matter? We dig into OpenAI's new WebMCP Challenge and what it means for the agentic web, plus Bun's massive 1.4 release packed with performance wins and new features. Then we wrap up with TanStack AI hitting release candidate and the internet's new favorite gimmick, Hugging Face's rollerblading Microduck. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 1:03 - Will AI coding prevent expertise? 21:40 - WebMCP challenge 29:49 - Bun 1.4 release 42:17 - TanStack AI RC 43:14 - Microduck 47:21 - What's making us happy News Paige: AI Coding will Prevent Expertise Jack: WebMCP challenge TJ: Bun 1.4 Lightning News Microduck TanStack AI enters RC What's Making Us Happy Paige: The Paradise Problem book Jack: Altoids guitar pick insert website TJ: Still Counting Podcast Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. Join us in our Discord, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-End Fire website Blue Collar Coder on YouTube Blue Collar Coder on Discord Reach out via email Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

August 24, 2026Episode 1581 hr 2 min

158: The Browser Wars are Getting Weird

This week we dig into Cloudflare's new agent-only browser, Kitesurf, built for speed over polish. Cursor made waves by ditching Solid.js for React, and Jack brings back a field report from RenderATL on the state of dev conferences in 2026. Plus, in Lightning News: pnpm's Rust rewrite, Microsoft trimming its AI feature list, Claude tackling the Riemann hypothesis with 60 subagents, and a Claude agent that accidentally hacked into a gym's registration system. Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 1:00 - Cloudflare introduces Kitesurf: an agent-first browser 8:08 - Cursor moves from Solid to React 17:08 - Render ATL recap 30:44 - pnpm 12 32:39 - Microsoft kills off unsuccessful AI features 36:24 - Claude, the Riemann hypothesis, and Jared Sumner? 42:37 - A Claude agent hacked into a gym 48:40 - What's making us happy News Paige: Cloudflare introduces Kitesurf: an agent-first browser Jack: Render ATL recap TJ: Cursor moves from Solid to React Lightning News Pnpm 12 is Rust Microsoft kills off unsuccessful AI features The weird Mico video Claude, the Riemann hypothesis, and Jared Sumner? A Claude agent hacked into a gym What's Making Us Happy Paige: ChatGPT Desktop App Jack: How dark is your movie & TV app TJ: The coolest scroll animation I've ever seen Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. Join us in our Discord, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube. Front-End Fire website Blue Collar Coder on YouTube Blue Collar Coder on Discord Reach out via email Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast