Richard MacManus

With virtually every coding tool now infused with AI, developers are increasingly asking themselves: what type of coding tool should be my default now? Do I need one of those new-fangled “agentic IDEs” or is Visual Studio Code good enough? What role does the cloud play in AI tooling? To answer these questions, I’ve surveyed … Read more

Warp, the command-line terminal app built for AI, has finally arrived on Windows. Previously it was available only on macOS and Linux, but today’s launch significantly broadens its potential user base. I spoke with Warp’s founder and CEO, Zach Lloyd, about the news. We also discuss how Warp is positioning itself among the raft of … Read more

Google has just released a free version of Gemini Code Assist, its AI coding tool that up till now had primarily been available on paid business plans starting at $19 per month. Not only is Google opening up the tool to individuals for free, but it’s offering up to 180,000 code completions per month — … Read more

So far, 2025 has been the year of AI agents — where generative AI technology is used to automate actions. We’ve seen OpenAI’s Operator debut, demonstrating a prototype agent that can browse the web and do tasks for you. Now a new company called Orby is bringing that same approach to the enterprise, with a … Read more

Last month StackBlitz, formally a Cloud Development Environment (CDE), rebranded itself to Bolt, an AI-based online web app builder. Why the sudden pivot and how is Bolt faring against a plethora of other AI coding tools now on the market? I spoke with CEO Eric Simons to find out. Simons admitted that launching an AI … Read more

In a blog post this month introducing the concept of “Agent Experience” (AX), Netlify CEO Matt Biilmann noted that “today, more than 1,000 sites are being created on Netlify directly from ChatGPT every single day.” Despite knowing that the majority of software developers already use AI-assisted coding tools, I was surprised to read that 1,000 … Read more

Replicate has a very simple premise: run and share machine learning models in the cloud, using containers technology. Sound familiar? That may be because Replicate’s founder and CEO, Ben Firshman, was previously the creator of Fig, which was acquired by Docker and then became Docker Compose. Replicate is the end result of Firshman and his … Read more

Serverless has been a trend in internet development for the past decade or more, but has taken on new meaning in the generative AI era. Modal specializes in providing serverless infrastructure tailored for compute-heavy and long-running AI, ML, and data workflows, which are typically challenging for conventional serverless solutions. It’s aimed squarely at developers who … Read more

With the emergence of viable WebAssembly-powered web frameworks for Rust developers, it’s worth looking at how often Rust is used for web development currently, what tools these developers are using, and suitable use cases for Rust and Wasm going forward. In the 2024 JetBrains State of Developer Ecosystem Report, 35% of Rust developers stated they … Read more

WebAssembly (Wasm) is starting to be used more in web development. In particular, Rust frameworks like Leptos and Sycamore are using Wasm to compile Rust into fast, interactive web apps. Leptos describes itself as a “cutting-edge Rust framework for the modern web.” The project claims to have a web performance second only to vanilla JavaScript … Read more

The year in web development was characterized by a return to simpler ways of building a website or web application. Partly this was a reaction against the increasing complexity of JavaScript frameworks — especially React-based frameworks. Simpler options like Astro and Eleventy (which I use to run Cybercultural, my internet history website) became more popular … Read more

“We build bridges, not walls.” That statement comes from a new non-profit organization that launched yesterday called “A New Social.” I spoke to the two founders, Anuj Ahooja and Ryan Barrett, to discuss where the open web is at now, its potential for massive growth in 2025, and how their new organization plans to help. … Read more

This time last year, I wrote that AI engineering in 2023 was defined by a proliferation of LLMs and an expansion of AI dev tooling. In 2024, those trends continued — but also the market for both LLMs and AI development tools matured considerably. This year, AI got integrated into the core tools of developers … Read more