<p><strong>TLDR:</strong> JetBrains is making core JavaScript, TypeScript, HTML, and CSS tooling free in IntelliJ IDEA starting with v2026.1 — a real shift for developers who’ve been paying for features that VS Code gives away. Google Stitch got a significant update, adding an infinite canvas, voice input, a portable <a href="http://design.md" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">design.md</a> file, and MCP integration for handing off to AI coding tools. Next.js 16.2 landed with some genuinely impressive performance numbers. The CSS <code>light-dark()</code> function is expanding to support images, which quietly solves an annoying dark mode pattern.</p>
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<h2>JetBrains makes JS and TS features free in IntelliJ IDEA</h2>
<p>Starting with v2026.1, IntelliJ IDEA’s free tier will include syntax highlighting, code completion, import management, basic React support, code navigation, refactoring, and integrated tooling for ESLint, Prettier, Vite, and npm scripts. These were previously locked behind an Ultimate subscription. Advanced features — dedicated debuggers, full Angular and Vue support, test runners — stay in Ultimate, which still has a 30-day trial. This is a meaningful concession from JetBrains, likely in response to years of VS Code eating their lunch on price.</p>
<h2>Google Stitch gets a real update</h2>
<p>Stitch moved from a basic text-to-UI prototype tool to something more substantial. The update adds an infinite canvas for multi-screen projects, a design agent that maintains visual consistency across screens, voice input via Gemini Live, and a <a href="http://design.md" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">design.md</a> file that captures your design system rules in a portable format. The most interesting piece for developers is the MCP server SDK, which lets Stitch hand off directly to Claude Code, Cursor, or Gemini CLI. The workflow: design in Stitch, export with <a href="http://design.md" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">design.md</a>, pass to an AI coding tool for a React/Tailwind implementation. Whether the generated code holds up without heavy cleanup is still unclear, but as a rapid prototyping layer it’s worth a look. It’s free, including token usage.</p>
<h2>Next.js 16.2 ships with big performance gains</h2>
<p>The release claims 400% faster dev server startup, 25-60% faster HTML rendering via a change to server component payload deserialization (replacing JSON.parse reviver callbacks with recursive JavaScript walks), and 2-20x faster image response. There’s also a new default error page. On the AI tooling side, new projects now include an <a href="http://agents.md" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">agents.md</a> file by default for AI coding agent context, and experimental agent dev tools expose browser-level data — screenshots, network requests, component trees — to AI agents via shell commands. The performance numbers are significant if they hold in real projects.</p>
<h2>CSS <code>light-dark()</code> is getting image support</h2>
<p>The <code>light-dark()</code> function is being extended to support <code>&lt;image&gt;</code> values, meaning you can swap background images, masks, and logos based on color scheme in a single declaration without writing <code>@media (prefers-color-scheme)</code> blocks. Browser support is early: behind a flag in Chromium 148+, shipping in Firefox 150 (stable April 2026), not yet in Safari. A <code>@supports</code> detection snippet using <code>linear-gradient()</code> is available for progressive enhancement. Small addition, but it closes a real gap in the dark mode authoring story.</p>
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<h2>Also notable</h2>
<ul>
<li><strong>v0 diff view:</strong> Vercel’s v0 added a dedicated diff view showing line counts and commit messages across files — useful for actually reviewing what the AI changed before accepting it.</li>
<li><strong>Vercel Chat SDK:</strong> A TypeScript library for deploying AI chat bots across Slack, Teams, Discord, Telegram, WhatsApp, GitHub, Linear, and Google Chat from one codebase, with pluggable Redis/PostgreSQL state backends. Currently in public beta.</li>
<li><strong>Claude web app performance:</strong> The Claude web and desktop apps migrated from SSR to a static Vite.js and TanStack Router setup served from edge workers, cutting time to first byte 65% at p75 and getting prompts on screen 50% sooner.</li>
<li><strong>TanStack Start migration story:</strong> A developer reports doubling shipping velocity after moving from Next.js App Router to TanStack Start (React 19 + Vite), framing it as a framework abstraction problem rather than a Vercel criticism.</li>
<li><strong>React grid benchmark:</strong> A Progress-authored comparison of KendoReact, MUI, and AG Grid found KendoReact consistently faster once paging or virtualization is enabled, rendering 1 million rows in under 1 second versus 5+ seconds for the others. Take the vendor-authored numbers with appropriate skepticism.</li>
<li><strong><code>text-wrap: balance</code> and <code>text-wrap: pretty</code>:</strong> Two CSS properties worth adding to your reset — balance distributes text evenly in headings, pretty prevents single-word orphans in paragraphs.</li>
<li><strong>VerifyFetch:</strong> A JS library for streaming integrity verification on file downloads, using only 2MB of memory regardless of file size. Relevant for anyone serving large WASM or AI model assets from a CDN.</li>
<li><strong>php-via:</strong> A PHP framework for real-time reactive UIs using Server-Sent Events and OpenSwoole, with no JavaScript or build step required. Interesting scope system for controlling state sharing across tabs, sessions, or all users. Missing file uploads, auth, and multi-server scaling for now.</li>
<li><strong>8bit CN:</strong> A shadcn/ui component library that reskins components to look like retro 8-bit games. Single install command, same component API.</li>
<li><strong>CSS reset additions:</strong> <code>text-wrap: balance</code> for headings and <code>text-wrap: pretty</code> for paragraphs are increasingly standard in modern resets — worth adding if you haven’t.</li>
<li><strong>Google Stitch design quality:</strong> A 30-year design veteran tested Stitch on a real PRD and found results functional but unpolished, with limited iterative refinement. Consensus forming that AI design tools are still rough-prototype territory, not production-ready.</li>
</ul>


Frontend development news, CSS techniques, framework updates, and browser API changes.

Web Digest

A developer news roundup covering several notable updates: JetBrains is making JS/TS/HTML/CSS tooling free in IntelliJ IDEA starting v2026.1, previously locked behind Ultimate subscriptions. Google Stitch received a major update adding infinite canvas, voice input, a portable design.md file, and MCP integration for handoff to AI coding tools like Claude Code and Cursor. Next.js 16.2 ships with claimed 400% faster dev server startup and significant HTML rendering improvements. CSS light-dark() is being extended to support image values for cleaner dark mode authoring. Additional items include Vercel's Chat SDK, Claude web app migration to Vite/TanStack Router with 65% TTFB improvement, a TanStack Start migration story, React grid benchmarks, and several CSS and JS library notes.

JetBrains opens JS/TS features for free, Google Stitch gets a serious update