Debugging React with AI

Debugging with AI: Can it replace experienced developer?
25 minutes by Nadia Makarevich

Nadia tested three AI debugging scenarios on real React and Next.js bugs. AI successfully fixed simple issues like missing schema fields. It struggled with complex problems involving Next.js internals, offering contradictory explanations and fixes that sometimes introduced new errors. AI excels at pattern recognition for common bugs but fails when deep system understanding is needed. The key skill is knowing when to stop prompting and start debugging manually.

How to add API key management to your Next.js app
sponsored by Clerk

Your users need programmatic access to your API for integrations, CI/CD, and automations. Clerk's new API Keys feature gives you a drop-in React component for key generation, scoping, and instant revocation — tied to your existing auth so there's no parallel identity system to manage.

React’s ViewTransition element
4 minutes by Chris Coyier

React now ships a ViewTransition element in its Canary pre-release, but you can also use the native web View Transitions API directly. The native approach uses document.startViewTransition with React state updates instead of direct DOM manipulation. React's version requires wrapping components in ViewTransition tags and calling startTransition. While both methods work, React's approach automatically handles rendering lifecycle coordination and offers declarative attributes for enter and exit transitions, though it adds framework-specific overhead to a platform feature.

The engineering behind Copilot CLI's animated ASCII banner
15 minutes by Aaron Winston

Aaron shares with you how GitHub built an accessible, multi-terminal-safe ASCII animation for the Copilot CLI using custom tooling, ANSI color roles, and advanced terminal engineering.

Writing good unit tests
9 minutes by Elio Capella Sánchez

Chasing high test coverage often leads to brittle tests that break when you refactor code. Instead of mirroring your source folder structure and testing internal functions, Elio suggests to focus on testing behaviors through public interfaces. Mock only at system edges like HTTP requests and databases, not internal layers like hooks or controllers.

You probably don’t need useCallback here
4 minutes by Fotis Adamakis

React's useMemo and useCallback are often overused, especially in AI-generated code. Most re-renders are cheap and normal—they don't automatically mean DOM updates or performance problems. useMemo doesn't prevent re-renders; it helps only when calculations are expensive or when stable references are needed for React.memo or effect dependencies. useCallback works similarly for functions.

Still writing tests manually? Meticulous AI is here
sponsored by Meticulous

Most teams are forced to make the tradeoff between better coverage and more maintenance effort. But top engineering teams like Notion, Dropbox, Wealthsimple and LaunchDarkly have discovered a new testing paradigm. Built by ex-Palantir engineers, Meticulous creates and maintains E2E UI tests that covers every edge case of your web app - without any developer effort, making it the only tool to improve both product quality and dev velocity.

javascript

• Explicit resource management in JavaScript
• A percise parser

webdev

• Combobox vs. multiselect vs. listbox
• Using 100vw is now scrollbar-aware
• I’ve been compiling my Sass wrong, for years

And the most popular article from the last issue was:

• useOptimistic won't save you