Front-End Fire

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

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

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

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

Another week, another new AI IDE. This week, Google released the Antigravity IDE (yet another VS Code fork) which offers unique twists like “cross-surface” agents, user feedback to agent-generated artifacts, and a view of all agents across any workspace.The team behind the Unistyles cross-platform library just debuted Uniwind for all the React Native devs who want to use Tailwind styling in their native apps. Uniwind brings Tailwind-style className support to RN at build time, and has a custom, high-performance CSS parser to handle both Tailwind 4 and plain CSS files. Prisma 7.0 is out, and so is Rust from its codebase. The team completely rebuilt it in TypeScript to cut down on its bundle size and the communication layer between Rust and the JS runtime that was actually slower than just JavaScript through and through.In Lightning News, even if you don’t develop in Angular, the Angular v21 dev release video is worth a watch, Cloudflare had a big Internet outage this week, Firefox has teased AI in its browser “the Firefox way”, and the State of React Survey 2025 is open now (please vote for Front-end Fire in the Podcasts section!).Timestamps:1:27 - Prisma 7.09:35 - Uniwind12:18 - Antigravity27:32 - Angular v21 release video29:20 - Cloudflare outage37:11 - Firefox gets an AI window38:47 - State of React survey open40:36 - What’s making us happyNews:Paige - UniwindJack - Prisma 7.0TJ - AntigravityLightning News:Firefox gets an AI windowCloudflare had a big outageThe State of React Survey 2025 is now openAngular v21 Dev Release videoWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Upcoming holidays and seeing familyJack - StroboClip HD for the guitarTJ - Dungeon Crawler Carl bookThanks 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