Front-End Fire podcast | Listen online for free

Available Episodes

5 of 97

GraphQL and AI with Apollo CTO Matt DeBergalis
CTO and co-founder of Apollo, Matt DeBergalis, joins us on this episode to talk about how GraphQL has continued to evolve over time, and how Apollo is focused on making it more accessible for developers and AI agents than ever before.For those less familiar with Apollo and GraphQL, Matt shares the history of both, including lessons he learned from founding the company Meteor that helped him while building Apollo.We discuss how even though GraphQL is making less headlines than it was a few years ago, it’s really begun to find its niche within larger organizations that have hundreds or even thousands of APIs and databases underpinning their many applications, and how Apollo has continued to evolve so that it can support APIs, serverless functions, and SQL- or no SQL-databases, with little extra code needed to make these different data sources work together.Matt also highlights the benefits of a GraphQL schema for AI agents and MCP servers, sharing how the agents are generally very good at parsing the schemas and understanding how to leverage queries against the interface to retrieve the data they need. While we’ve had tech stacks in the past like LAMP and MERN, this new addition of AI to the development mix provides a unique opportunity to redefine the stack once more, and GraphQL could be a very good piece to include.Special GuestMatt DeBergalis, CTO and co-founder of ApolloRelevant Links:Apollo GraphQL websiteApollo GraphQL YouTubeApollo GraphQL LinkedInApollo GraphQL on XMatt on GitHubMatt on XMatt on MediumMatt on LinkedInWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - The Pitt TV seriesTJ - I Think I Was MurderedMatt - Teaching my daughter to ride a bikeThanks 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
--------
47:19
TanStack DB & The Rise of the Tannerverse
TanStack, a collection of popular open-source software libraries, is back in the news cycle this week with the announcement of TanStack DB. TanStack DB extends TanStack Query with collections, live queries, and optimistic UI mutations to keep UIs reactive, consistent, and lightning fast.VS Code marks its 100th release of v1 with updates like: enabling Next Edit Suggestions (NES) be default, adding custom instructions and reusable prompts for a chat agent inside a project’s .github folder, and new tools at the AI agent’s disposal for better results.There’s a new component library available called Basecoat UI that claims to bring the magic of shadcn/ui with no React required. No matter if a website’s built using HTML, Flask, Rails, or another JS framework, Basecoat uses HTML and Tailwind, and a hint of Alpine.js when needed, to provide accessible, modern components that are also compatible with shadcn/ui themes.News:Paige - Basecoat UI - framework agnostic component libraryJack - TanStack DBTJ - VS Code 1.100Bonus News:Apparently we should all just f’ing use HTMLParcel v2.15 jumps on the Rust bandwagonGoogle is testing a new “AI Mode”Google’s logo changeMax once again becomes HBO MaxWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - House of Earth and Blood (#1 in Crescent City series) Jack - Grand Sumo May 2025 TournamentTJ - Coast of MichiganThanks 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
--------
39:35
Design, Code, Publish - All in Figma?
Node is back in the news with some noteworthy updates as v24 drops. It gets an upgrade to 13.6 for its V8 JavaScript engine, runs with npm version 11, and has more efficient implementation of the local storage API and test runner updates.Google has released its newest version of its Gemini AI model: Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview (I/O Edition), which claims to be the best model for front-end and UI development. To prove it, Google links to a site called the WebDev Arena (where Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview ranks #1), that lets users put in a prompt and then pits different AI models head to head to build a site based on the prompt. Figma just had their 2025 Config conference and unveiled a host of new offerings, including Figma Sites that lets folks design, prototype and publish with Figma, and Figma Make the AI prompting tool that can add functionality to a Figma mockup via natural language directions.News:Paige - Node 24 updatesJack - Figma Make and Figma Sites and conference demo videoTJ - Gemini 2.5 updates and WebDev ArenaBonus News:Take the first annual State of Devs surveyOpenAI agrees to buy Windsurf for $3BFire Starters:CSS reading-flow and reading-orderWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Old Town Trolley ToursJack - The Residence TV showTJ - ChatGPT helping with camera & video setupThanks 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
--------
49:25
React Activity, Storybook 9 Beta, and AI as a Collaborator, Not a Crutch
The React team’s been on a roll lately with new experimental updates. Last episode we covered View Transitions, and today we discuss Activity. Activity is a component to hide and show parts of the UI while maintaining the component’s state and continuing to render at a lower priority when it’s not visible on screen.Storybook 9 beta is out now, and it seems to be transitioning from a frontend workshop for building UI components in isolation to a one-stop shop for all your frontend testing needs.And Microsoft recently released a paper from researchers at Cambridge and Carnegie Mellon studying how AI coding assistants have allowed developers to engage in less critical thinking and independent problem-solving, and how the skills to do both could deteriorate if this over-reliance on AI continues unchecked.News:Paige - Storybook 9 betaJack - React <Activity>TJ - The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking and Avoiding Skill Atrophy in the Age of AIBonus News:Ladybird new independent web browserMTMC-16Apple changes App Store rules to allow external purchasesWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - The Night Manager seriesJack - RaycastTJ - Linkin Park World TourThanks 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
--------
55:50
Alien Signals, React Compiler Hits RC, and RedwoodSDK Plans Revealed
Signals has been gaining in popularity the past few years for its fine-grained approach to reactivity in the browser, and a new high performance implementation called Alien Signals has landed in Vue.js. It offers significant performance improvements to complex applications with lots of data changes, and has been extended so it can be used in other JS-based libraries besides Vue. The React team announces that React Compiler has reached release candidate (RC) stage and is nearing stable release territory. React Compiler is a build-time tool that optimizes React apps through automatic memoization so devs don’t have to worry about including useMemo() and useCallback() hooks in their code.RedwoodSDK, which had some cryptic messaging about its future last month, has unveiled more of the story on its new website this month. It’s aiming to be part of the “personal software revolution” by providing a React framework for Cloudflare, offering built in access to Cloudflare Workers, databases and storage, queues, AI, and more.News:Paige - RedwoodSDK details revealedJack - Alien SignalsTJ - React Compiler RCBonus News:Everybody wants to buy ChromeWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Severance TV series season 2Jack - Grilling seasonTJ - Detroit grows in population for the first time in decadesThanks 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
--------
37:14