Jumbo-sized JavaScript for issue 747

✈️ #​747 — August 1, 2025

Read on the Web

JavaScript Weekly

Observable Notebooks 2.0 Technology Preview — The Observable Framework and the new Notebook Kit are just two parts of a rich ecosystem of reactive JavaScript ‘notebook’-style tools for creating data visualizations (example) and dashboards, originally created by Mike Bostock. This v2 release previews a big step forward with a new notebook file format based on HTML and, for the first time, support for true vanilla JavaScript, complete with the ability to import libraries with import. Here’s another neat example showing off the potential. There are a lot of parts here, so dig in.

Observable, Inc.

CodeRabbit’s Free AI Code Reviews in IDE – VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf — Code Rabbit brings AI code reviews to VS Code, Cursor & Windsurf. Get line-by-line reviews, one-click fixes & codebase-aware feedback – all free in your IDE. Seamlessly integrates with git workflows. Install the extension & start reviewing!

CodeRabbit sponsor

The Many JavaScript Runtimes of the Last Decade — A fantastic, well-researched look at the myriad of JavaScript runtimes and engines both past and present, from mainstream picks like Node.js and Bun, to cloud platforms and some more obscure ‘honorable mentions’. A perfect way to round out your knowledge of JavaScript’s runtime story.

Whatever, Jamie

Node.js v22.18 (LTS) Gets Type Stripping by Default — We wouldn’t normally feature a minor Node.js LTS release, but this one comes with a big tweak: type stripping/TypeScript support is enabled by default, making node app.ts a reality, much as with Bun or Deno.

Antoine du Hamel

💡 Node v24.5 (Current) has also been released, with node:http(s) now supporting proxies, OpenSSL 3.5, and --experimental-wasm-modules unflagged.

IN BRIEF:

• 🕹️ LLM whisperer Simon Willison shows off how he used the new GLM-4.5 Air model running locally on his MacBook Pro to implement a JavaScript ‘Space Invaders’ game in one shot. You can play it here.

• npm now lets you securely publish npm packages from CI/CD workflows using OpenID Connect (OIDC) for authentication.

• 📊 The Stack Overflow 2025 survey results are out, and JavaScript sits at #1 in the most used languages, React holds the top frontend library spot, with jQuery at number two.

• Tailwind Plus has added support for vanilla JavaScript – no Vue or React needed.

RELEASES:

• ⭐ pnpm 10.14 – The alternative, efficient package manager adds the ability to declare a Node.js, Deno or Bun version in package.json and have it installed and pinned automatically.

• Node-RED 4.1 – Powerful JS-based low-code flow-based platform for building event-driven apps.

• Ionic 8.7 – Cross-platform mobile app development framework.

• Storybook 9.1 – Frontend component and UI workshop.

• TypeScript 5.9 RC – The final release is imminent (most likely later today).

• ESLint v9.32.0, Preact 10.27, Angular 20.1.4, Deno 2.4.3, React 19.1.1

📖  Articles and Videos

▶  Zod vs. Valibot: A JS/TS Validator Battle — You know it’s good when the creator of Zod comments: “incredible video. honestly blown away by how succinct and clear you made everything.” (12 minutes.)

Jack Herrington

Compile Svelte 5 in Your Head — Svelte does things a little differently to most UI frameworks by compiling code to components ahead-of-time, but what is it actually doing at the code level?

Tan Li Hau

Choosing The Right SaaS Architecture: Multi-Tenant Vs. Single-Tenant — Choosing between multi-tenant and single-tenant? This guide breaks down the tradeoffs clearly.

Clerk sponsor

Logical Assignment Operators in JavaScript: Small Syntax, Big Wins — A handy post if you need to get a grip on your ||=, &&= and ??=s.

Matt Smith

Making Sense of the Performance Extensibility API — The Performance Extensibility API allows us to create custom tracks in Chrome DevTools’ Performance panel — here’s how to make use of it.

Harry Roberts

📺 The Creator of Bun on Building Bun and its Node.js Compatibility Patrick Akil and Jarred Sumner

📄 The Multi-Repository TypeScript Problem – Solving cross-repo type safety. David Moores

📄 vi.mock is a Footgun: Why vi.spyOn Should Be Your Default Brendan McLoughlin

📄 How to Build 2D Game-Style Physics with Matter.js and React Native Skia Daniel Friyia (Expo Blog)

🛠 Code & Tools

Dependency Cruiser 17: A Way to Visualize Dependencies — If you want a look at the output, there’s a whole page of graphs for popular, real world projects including Chalk, Yarn, and React.

Sander Verweij

TanStack DB: The Embedded Client Database for TanStack Query — One for team React! TanStack DB is an embedded client‑side database that uses differential dataflow to power live, relational queries, sub‑ms incremental updates, and optimistic writes. This post is a great pitch, and the first beta is available now.

Kyle Mathews and Sam Willis

Connect Performance and Reliability to User Engagement — With Embrace, see where technical issues cause dropoff, along with attribute correlations to surface affected cohorts.

Embrace sponsor

AudioTee.js: macOS System Audio Capture for Node.js — Wrapping around an (included) Swift-powered binary, this captures Mac system audio output and emits it as PCM encoded chunks at regular intervals. GitHub repo.

Nick Payne

• Ghost 6.0 RC – The popular Node.js-powered blogging / publishing platform approaches its next major release.

• Ink 6.1 – Use React to build CLI apps, as used by Claude Code, Gemini CLI, and many other apps.

• Cytoscape.js 3.33 – Graph theory/network visualization and analysis library.

• eslint-plugin-vue 10.4 – Official ESLint plugin for Vue.js. (Homepage.)

• Axios 1.11 – Long-standing, promise-based isomorphic HTTP client.

• InversifyJS 7.7 – Lightweight inversion of control container.

🎁 Some Bonus Items

• Google has unveiled a new open-licensed code font called Google Sans Code. It has a ‘soft’ feel to it and is inspired by Google’s branding. It’s available on Google Fonts too, if you want to quickly plug it into a site.

• NPKILL is a popular tool for digging into, and cleaning up, those heavy node_modules folders you’ve accumulated. v1.0 is nearly here and its author is thinking about how it could be extended to cleaning up other types of clutter.

• Pete Matsyburka demonstrates how just a few lines of code can make sites load faster, thanks to the Speculation Rules API (currently only supported by Chromium-based browsers).

• Got a big JavaScript project that needs some serious attention from someone experienced? npm creator Isaac Z. Schlueter is available for hire.

• 📺 If you’ve never thought about what might go into making a text editor, ▶️ Computerphile’s latest video will be an eye opener.

• I have to admire someone who builds their blog using C preprocessor macros.