Why AI tools fail on legacy systems, secure agent execution, and reimagining social media architecture. Plus Vercel open-sourced their repo of best practices accumulated from 10+ years of experience.

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Welcome, Developers! 👋

Today: why AI tools struggle with legacy codebases, browsers as secure sandboxes for AI agents, and a social media filesystem concept. Plus Vercel open-sources React optimization rules, a staff engineer's honest take on software estimation, and tools for automated workflows and visualization.

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🔖 The Reading Room

Articles we have hand-picked for you:

Why Your Legacy Codebase Defeats AI Tools

Senior engineers often spend 7+ hours weekly answering context questions that exist nowhere in documentation. While AI coding tools can produce confident suggestions on legacy systems, they're often catastrophic since they cannot see the invisible architecture. AI is good at accelerating the already-fast systems but provide minimal benefit to slow ones.

By Lloyd Moore →

The Browser Is the Sandbox

Paul explores whether browsers can safely run AI agents with file system access considering they already offer three powerful sandboxing layers: controlled file system access via the File System Access API, network lockdown through CSP, and isolated execution via Web Workers and WebAssembly. 

By Paul Kinlan →

A Social Filesystem

What if social media worked like personal computing, where your creations outlive the tools that made them? The AT Protocol reimagines social media by treating posts, likes, and follows as files in a distributed filesystem. Instead of data being locked inside apps like Instagram or Reddit, users would own their content in personal repositories that any app can read.

By Dan Abramov →

React Best Practices

Vercel has open-sourced react-best-practices, a structured repository containing 10+ years of React and Next.js optimization knowledge. The framework includes 40+ rules across 8 categories, prioritized by impact from CRITICAL to LOW, and is specifically optimized for AI agents and LLMs to help teams consistently identify and fix common performance issues.

By Shu Ding & Andrew Qu →

How I estimate work as a staff software engineer

Accurate software estimation is a polite fiction in tech. Projects are dominated by unknown work that can't be predicted in advance, and estimates serve as political tools for managers rather than engineering planning. Smart engineers gather political context first, then figure out what approaches match the desired timeline instead of estimating how long work will take.

By Sean Goedecke →

⏳ Back in Time

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🔗 The Link Lounge 

Unordered finds from around the web:

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🧰 The Toolbox

Tools and products we're excited about today:

Eigent

Eigent is an open-source desktop application that automates complex workflows using multi-agent AI systems. Built on CAMEL-AI, it features parallel agent execution, local deployment options, and MCP tool integration. Deploy locally for complete data control or use cloud services for quick setup.

Learn more →

Coi

Coi is a modern, component-based language for building reactive web apps. It compiles to WASM for native performance with fine-grained reactivity, strict typing, and zero GC pauses.

Learn more →

Swark

Swark automatically creates architecture diagrams from your code using LLMs. It generates Mermaid.js diagrams to help you understand codebases, review AI code, and improve documentation.

Learn more →

Ultracite 

Ultracite is a zero-configuration preset for code formatters/linters (Biome, ESLint, Oxlint, Prettier, Stylelint). It provides opinionated rules optimized for JavaScript/TypeScript frameworks, integrates with AI agents and editors, and helps maintain consistent code quality. Install with npx ultracite@latest init.

Learn more →

Email plays by new rules. Get up to speed.

Email used to be simple. You created your copy and design, tracked performance, and moved on. That model is breaking. Privacy updates now affect tracking, consent, and sender requirements before an email reaches the inbox. That changes how you build signup forms, handle consent, and measure engagement.


Want to know what actually matters now? Click below to get a free playbook showing what’s changed and what to adjust so the email systems you build stay reliable and trusted.

Get your guide →

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