Web Development Updates

Hello readers!

As we do every month, we've gathered a selection of web development updates that we think are worth sharing.

Learn how to benefit from the Agent mode in VS Code, get insights into Zod 4, find out in what order React runs useEffect hooks and much more.

Happy reading!

What’s new in Zod 4?

The Zod team has released a beta version of version 4, with the production release coming soon. The major improvements focus on performance, with parsing speeds increased by 2–7×, a 20× reduction in TypeScript type instantiation, and a corresponding performance boost. Additionally, the bundle size has been cut by 50%. New features include direct JSON schema conversion, better handling of TypeScript optional types, full support for recursive structures, and much more.

Understanding React useEffects running order

Check out this article to learn more about the order in which React runs useEffect hooks in the component tree. The article explains more deeply how React Fiber is traversing the component tree and what phases it involves.

VS Code introduces agent mode for the Copilot

VS Code recently rolled out a new mode for Github Copilot - Agent mode. This chat mode uses multiple steps and various agents to determine the relevant context, edit files, fix issues, update tests, and much more. Check out the blog post to learn more about it.

Faster TypeScript—Soon

The TypeScript team is working on rewriting the codebase in Go. This new compiler will be developed alongside the current TypeScript implementation, with the intention of eventually replacing it. Although it’s not yet production-ready due to feature parity gaps, early results are promising. The Go version delivers 10× faster build times, faster startup, and reduced memory usage.

End of developers era with the AI?

Josh W. Comeau shares his thoughts and observations on the topic of AI tools replacing developers. He compares his expectations from two years ago with the current state of AI and offers his perspective on the near future. Definitely worth a read!

Stay tuned for more web development updates in our next issue.