Syntax &#8211; Tasty Web Development Treats

998: How to Fix Vibe Coding Apr 22, 2026

Show notes

Wes and Scott talk about making AI coding more reliable using deterministic tools like fallow, knip, ESLint, StyleLint, and Sentry. They cover code quality analysis, linting strategies, headless browsers, task workflows, and how to enforce better patterns so AI stops guessing and starts producing maintainable, predictable code.

Show Notes

00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
- Losing two clients in one week
04:49 Code quality tools
14:11 Finding and using components
- Storybook AI
17:28 Brought to you by Sentry.io
17:42 Finding bugs
- Sentry CLI
- Spotlight
19:55 Formatting and linting
- Vite+
- ESLint
- StyleLint
- clint
25:41 Headless browsers
32:11 Tasks and todos
- dex
- beads
33:32 Docs
- Context7
34:22 TanStack Code Mode
36:01 Getting AI to use these tools
38:18 Sick Picks + Shameless Plugs

997: Rating and Roasting Your Projects Apr 20, 2026

Show notes

Scott and Wes dig into a huge batch of community-submitted projects, from JSON tools and CSS editors to AI agents, view transitions, and everything in between. It’s a rapid-fire showcase of what developers have been building, including picks like Arrow JS, Sugar High, Drift, and a whole lot more.

Show Notes

00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
- Wes’ Bluesky Post
- Wes’ X Post
01:20 JSON-Alexander.
02:43 FFF - Fastest File Search.
04:44 View Transitions Toolkit.
08:06 Agentation and Svelte Agentation.
11:21 CSS Studio.
13:12 Peon Ping
14:26 Peekdown.
16:03 Dex.
20:22 Content Copilot.
22:16 Opencode Sentry Monitor.
- pi-sentry-monitor.
24:56 Arrow JS.
29:20 Comark.
33:19 Silly Software Club.
34:05 Sugar High.
36:04 Drift.
37:19 Fallow.
41:20 Edit Mind.
44:46 Clint.
47:18 Honorable mentions.
- 47:21 Artemisapp.
- 49:53 Open Screen.
- 50:14 CanvidHQ.
- 52:02 Proxybox Zero.

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996: 10 New CSS and HTML APIs Apr 15, 2026

Show notes

Wes and Scott talk about the latest CSS and browser features, including the Grid Lines API for masonry layouts, HTML in Canvas, name-only container queries, CSS random, search-text styling, and more.

Show Notes

00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
00:57 Grid Lines API for masonry-style layouts
- Introducing CSS Grid Lanes
- CSS Grid Lanes browser support
03:25 HTML in canvas and next-gen UI effects
- @jaffathecake
- @mattrothenberg
11:30 Name-only container queries for scoped styles
- Name-Only Containers: The Scoping We Needed
14:37 Brought to you by Sentry.io
15:34 Safari removes haptic feedback workaround
17:38 CSS random for dynamic values
- Rolling the Dice with CSS random()
18:49 Styling find-in-page with ::search-text
21:44 Sticky positioning now works in both axes
- @una
22:43 Multi-column CSS finally gets usable fixes
- Looking at New CSS Multi-Column Layout Wrapping Features
24:41 Border shape improvements and new design options
- @una
- MadCSS.com
27:09 Why MDN demos need to be better
28:24 Element-scoped view transitions for cleaner animations
- @bram.us

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995: Next.js Vendor Lock-in No More Apr 13, 2026

Show notes

In this episode, Scott and Wes sit down with Tim Neutkens and Jimmi Lai from the Next.js team to dig into the new Adapters API, what it takes to run Next.js across platforms like Cloudflare and Netlify, and how caching and infrastructure choices affect performance. They also go deep on TurboPack’s internals, why Next.js doesn’t run on Vite, and the evolution of bundling in the framework.

Show Notes

00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
01:14 Introduction to Next.js and the Adapter Platform
- Next.js Across Platforms
02:23 The Adapters API: Features and Community Needs
04:46 Building and Testing the Adapters API
07:37 Infrastructure Requirements for Next.js Apps
11:38 Caching Strategies and Performance Optimization
13:29 The Role of Cache Components in Next.js
17:21 First Steps of Optimizations.
19:48 Blessed Adapters and Community Contributions
22:56 Future Directions and Runtime Support
25:05 Challenges with Different Runtimes and Debugging
26:45 Webpack vs. TurboPack: The Evolution of Next.js
29:45 Why Not Run on Vite?
32:47 Navigating Bundler Challenges
36:59 Building TurboPack: Lessons Learned
41:42 Incremental Compilation and Performance
- Episode with ByteDance’s Zack Jackson
43:50 Framework Comparisons and Performance Metrics
46:42 Exploring Future Directions for TurboPack
49:44 TurboPack’s Integration and API Development
52:50 Standardization in Bundler Tools
56:52 TurboPack’s Adoption and User Experience
57:49 Sick Picks + Shameless Plugs

Sick Picks

Tim: Acquired Podcast
Jimmy: Hydrangea Coffee

Shameless Plugs

Jimmy: nextjs-across-platforms

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994: AI Sucks At CSS Apr 08, 2026

Show notes

In this potluck episode of Syntax, Wes and Scott answer your questions about AI struggles with CSS and design workflows, learning vs relying on AI, debugging web performance, beginner soldering setups, navigating AI-era job interviews, Figma dev mode, modern API choices, and more.

Show Notes

00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
00:55 Why AI struggles with CSS and design workflows
10:50 How much AI should you use when learning to code?
18:41 Debugging performance: tools and team workflows
23:52 Brought to you by Sentry.io
26:26 Beginner soldering setup and essential tools
29:54 Preparing for interviews without AI (while jobs require it)
- Brendan Falk on AI-native coding interviews
35:16 Thoughts on Figma dev mode and design workflows
39:20 Ice vs Thaw menu bar apps
40:27 Why AI isn’t pushing us toward better APIs
44:54 Vibe rules, skills, and shipping docs for agents
- vibe-rules
- Optimizing Content for Agents
54:44 Sick Picks + Shameless Plugs

Sick Picks

Scott: Jury Duty
Wes: USB Cable Tester

Shameless Plugs

Syntax YouTube Channel

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993: It’s Been A Hell Of Week Apr 06, 2026

Show notes

Scott and Wes break down a chaotic week in dev news — the Claude Code source leak, a nasty Axios npm supply chain hack, and Railway’s private cache exposure — plus how to keep these nightmare scenarios from hitting your own projects.

Show Notes

00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
00:55 Claude Code Leaked!
- Wes’ X Post
- Apple Source Code Video
05:42 Burning through Claude Code token limits.
- Reddit Thread
08:57 Axios hacked!
16:13 Pretext blew up!
- Pretext.js Demos
- Wes’ Demo
27:24 Railway shared private cache.
- Railway Incident Report
31:54 Sick Picks & Shameless Plugs.

Sick Picks

Scott: Kindle Colorsoft Kids
Wes: UGREEN 200W 8-Port GaN USB C Charger Block, Wyze Headphones

Shameless Plugs

Scott: Syntax on YouTube

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992: Migrating Legacy Code Just Got Easier Apr 01, 2026

Show notes

Wes and Scott talk about migrating large codebases with AI — how to plan framework and language moves, establish patterns, handle templating changes, test thoroughly, safely deploy, and more.

Show Notes

00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
01:46 Why migrate to a new language or framework?
05:09 How to approach a large code migration
08:47 Establishing patterns before using AI
10:35 Moving from pug to JSX
12:06 Building a detailed migration plan
15:18 Testing every part of the application
15:51 Brought to you by Sentry.io
16:58 Deploying and catching issues with Sentry
19:12 Converting express requests to web standard requests
19:34 Other codebases that could benefit from AI migrations
21:36 Sick Picks + Shameless Plugs

Sick Picks

Scott: WisprFlow
Wes: displayplacer

Shameless Plugs

Phases Podcast

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991: Vite’s bet on Cloudflare (VOID Framework) Mar 30, 2026

Show notes

Vite just launched Void, a fullstack JavaScript framework and cloud platform that bundles together routing, SSR, auth, an ORM, and nearly everything you’d expect from a modern meta-framework — all built on top of Cloudflare’s infrastructure. Scott, Wes, and CJ dig into whether Void is the Rails moment JavaScript has been waiting for, or just shiny Cloudflare lock-in with a bow on it.

Show Notes

00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
- The Announcement
00:27 Laravel or Rails for JavaScript?
01:38 What is this big announcement?
04:36 It’s just Vercel for Cloudflare?
07:09 Database options.
09:37 Brought to you by Sentry.io.
10:01 Type safety.
12:09 What about RPC?
15:41 Component Loaders over Page Loaders.
18:23 Baked in authentication via Better Auth.
22:57 Lock-in. Unapologetically Cloudflare
- Evan’s X Post.
24:55 Is it lock-in?
32:40 Self-Cloudflare your own Void apps?

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