Best of JavaScript — March 2026

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   Bytes by ui.dev·9w

   Another Prettier killer has entered the villa

   Oxfmt, the formatter from the Oxc toolchain, has released its first beta and positions itself as a strong Prettier replacement. It is 30x faster than Prettier and 3x faster than Biome, passes 100% of Prettier's JS/TS conformance tests, supports a wide range of file types (JS, TS, JSON, YAML, CSS, Markdown, and more), and includes built-in Tailwind class sorting and import sorting. Migration is a single command. The newsletter also covers shadcn/cli v4, a React Fiber deep dive, Firefox 148's new Sanitizer API, TanStack Intent for agent skills, and other frontend news.

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   Bytes by ui.dev·10w

   Vercel is gonna buy Tailwind (probably)

   Tailwind CSS v4.2 was released with a new webpack plugin for improved Next.js performance, but the bigger story is Tailwind's financial struggles. Despite npm installs growing 5x due to LLM adoption, AI has caused a 40% drop in human doc visits, cutting into revenue from paid products and forcing layoffs of 75% of the engineering team. The newsletter speculates that Vercel, which has cash, a vested interest in Tailwind, and a track record of acquiring OSS projects like Svelte and Turborepo, is a likely acquirer. The issue also includes a JavaScript tip on deduplicating arrays of objects using Map, filter/findIndex, or reduce.

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   Bun·7w

   Bun v1.3.11

   Bun v1.3.11 ships with 105 bug fixes and several new features. New APIs include Bun.cron for OS-level cron job scheduling (crontab/launchd/Task Scheduler), Bun.sliceAnsi for ANSI and grapheme-aware string slicing, and richer metadata in Bun.markdown.render() list callbacks. The release adds --path-ignore-patterns for bun test, native Windows ARM64 shims for node_modules/.bin, and fixes dgram UDP socket bugs on macOS. Notable bug fixes cover fs.openSync numeric flags on Windows (unblocking tar@7), http2 WINDOW_UPDATE stalling, CRLF injection in HTTP headers, bundler bytecode/barrel/import-attribute issues, CSS unicode-range and mask parsing, bun install hang scenarios, and dozens of Node.js compatibility improvements across crypto, streams, fs, and more.

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   Bytes by ui.dev·6w

   TypeScript 6.0 is your final warning

   TypeScript 6.0 has been released as the last version built on its JavaScript codebase, serving as a transition before TypeScript 7.0 introduces a Go-based compiler with native speed and multi-threaded type checking. Key changes include strict mode enabled by default, module defaulting to esnext, target floating to the current ES spec (es2025), and types defaulting to an empty array — a change that may break many projects but promises 20–50% speed improvements. New features include built-in Temporal API types and Map.getOrInsert support. Several legacy options like outFile, baseUrl, and AMD/UMD/SystemJS targets are deprecated or removed. The newsletter also covers pnpm 11 beta, Zero 1.0 stable release, a React useState closure gotcha, and various other JavaScript ecosystem links.

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   Brad Frost·6w

   Coding Club

   Brad Frost visits his daughter's after-school coding club to share his passion for web development. He demos browser DevTools tricks on Minecraft's website, shows his daughter's vibe-coded game, and builds a live interactive webpage using JSON data collected from the kids in real time. The post reflects on the joy of sharing the magic of coding with children, free from professional jargon and business concerns.

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   John Reilly·10w

   npmx.dev: with a little help from my friends

   A personal account of contributing to npmx.dev, a community-built reimagining of the npmjs.com website. The author discovered a UX bug where npm API rate limiting (HTTP 429) caused the site to incorrectly show packages as missing. Using Claude Code to help write Vue/Nuxt code despite limited framework experience, they submitted a PR that displayed a proper rate-limit message to users. The post highlights npmx.dev's welcoming contributor culture, its thoughtful AI usage guidelines in CONTRIBUTING.md, and encourages others to get involved.

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   Codrops·10w

   Sticky Grid Scroll: Building a Scroll-Driven Animated Grid

   A step-by-step tutorial on building a scroll-driven animated image grid using GSAP, ScrollTrigger, and Lenis. The technique uses a sticky layout where scroll progress maps to animation phases: a 12-image grid reveals column by column, then zooms and opens to reveal centered text content. The tutorial covers HTML structure, a fluid rem CSS system, sticky positioning, and a modular JavaScript class that orchestrates multiple GSAP timelines for column reveal, grid zoom, parallax, and content fade-in.

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   web.dev·9w

   Navigation API - a better way to navigate, is now Baseline Newly Available

   The Navigation API has reached Baseline Newly Available status across all major browsers as of early 2026, replacing the long-problematic History API for single-page applications. It provides a single centralized NavigateEvent that handles all navigation types—link clicks, form submissions, back/forward buttons, and programmatic navigation—eliminating the fragile multi-step setup previously required. Key features include automatic URL updates, built-in accessibility handling (focus management), manual scroll timing control via event.scroll(), and seamless integration with the View Transitions API for app-like animations. Code examples demonstrate how the new API simplifies client-side routing compared to the old window.history approach.

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   Article

   freeCodeCamp·7w

   Build 19 Web Dev Projects using HTML, CSS, & JavaScript

   A 12-hour freeCodeCamp YouTube course covering 19 hands-on web development projects built with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Projects range from interactive quiz games, Kanban boards, and expense trackers to API integrations (MealDB, GitHub, currency converter), UI components, and utility tools like a password generator and scroll progress indicator.

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    Smashing Magazine·10w

    Getting Started With The Popover API — Smashing Magazine

    A developer shares their experience migrating tooltip implementations from JavaScript libraries to the browser-native Popover API. The Popover API handles keyboard interactions (including Escape key), ARIA state synchronization, and focus management automatically through HTML attributes like `popover`, `popovertarget`, and `popovertargetaction`. The author details accessibility improvements gained for free, remaining gaps (hover timing delays, manual focus restoration for `popover="manual"`), and when tooltip libraries like Floating UI still make sense — complex positioning, large design systems, or teams lacking accessibility expertise. CSS anchor positioning is also highlighted as an emerging complement to the API.

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    Video

    Theo - t3․gg·9w

    Are you f**king kidding?

    California and Colorado have passed/proposed laws requiring operating systems and app stores to collect age verification data from users, with fines up to $7,500 per affected minor for intentional violations. The author argues these laws are written by legislators who don't understand software, will create massive compliance burdens for open-source maintainers, fragment software distribution across state lines, and expose users to unnecessary privacy risks by forcing collection of sensitive identity data. Real-world effects are already visible: MidnightBSD updated its license to exclude California residents, Canonical is reviewing Ubuntu's response, and Discord is requiring face scans or IDs. The author calls on developers—especially those in California—to contact their state representatives to push back against these laws before they spread further.

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    Svelte Blog·10w

    What’s new in Svelte: March 2026

    The March 2026 Svelte monthly update covers new features across Svelte, SvelteKit, and the Svelte CLI. Svelte gains createContext support for programmatic component instantiation, TrustedHTML support in {@html} expressions, comments in HTML tags, and server-side error boundaries. SvelteKit adds scroll position info to navigation callbacks, Vite 8 support, a match function for reverse route resolution, and Netlify adapter updates including netlify.toml redirect support. The Svelte CLI now includes better-auth as an official addon. The State of JS 2025 shows Svelte leading reactive frameworks in positive sentiment. A community showcase highlights new apps, libraries, and tools built with Svelte.

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    Video

    Web Dev Simplified·7w

    I Am Done Using NPM

    npmx is a web-based alternative search interface for the npm registry that offers significantly better search results (powered by Algolia), faster performance through caching, and additional package metadata not available on the standard npm website. Key extras include vulnerability and deprecation warnings, auto-generated TypeScript docs, automatic @types install commands, a package comparison tool, social likes for gauging popularity, and keyboard shortcuts. Importantly, npmx does not replace npm as a package installer — it only replaces the npm website for browsing and discovering packages.

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    Chrome Developers·8w

    When to use WebMCP and MCP

    WebMCP and MCP serve complementary roles in building agentic web experiences. MCP is a universal backend protocol connecting AI agents to external systems, data sources, and workflows across any platform. WebMCP is a proposed browser standard that exposes frontend tools to browser-based agents, giving them structured, reliable access to live website UI, DOM, session data, and cookies. Key differences: MCP is persistent and platform-agnostic; WebMCP is ephemeral and tab-bound. The recommended approach is to use MCP for core business logic and background tasks, and WebMCP for contextual in-browser interactions when a user is actively on your site.

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    Stefan Mischook·8w

    Developers, This Is How You Code 5× Faster in 2026

    A video transcript offering advice on boosting developer productivity by 5x or more. Key recommendations include mastering fundamentals before picking frameworks, evaluating job market demand when choosing technologies, using AI tools strategically rather than delegating entire projects to them, leveraging IDEs, and learning full-stack development for architectural awareness. The core AI insight is that effective AI use requires developer-level knowledge: vague prompts produce messy code, while precise, technically-grounded prompts yield fast, clean results. The 'AI doom loop' is highlighted as a real risk for developers who lack foundational skills.

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    Joy of Code·9w

    20 Modern CSS Features You Should Know About

    A walkthrough of 20 modern CSS features introduced in 2025, covering invoker commands, dialogue light dismiss, popover hints, customizable select elements, CSS carousels with scroll buttons and markers, scroll spy via scroll-target-group, anchored container queries, interest invokers, scroll state queries, sibling index/count functions, scroll-into-view container option, nested view transition groups, DOM state-preserving moveBefore API, advanced attr() function, event source on toggle events, textbox trimming, the shape() function, CSS if statements, custom CSS functions, expanded range syntax for style queries, the stretch sizing keyword, and corner-shape property.

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    80 LEVEL·7w

    Check Out Updates for RPG Paper Maker 3.0, the No-Code RPG Game Engine

    RPG Paper Maker 3.0, a no-code game engine for creating 3D RPGs with 2D sprites and 3D objects, has received a major update. Created by solo developer Wano, the new version brings a renewed UI, browser compatibility, and additional small features. It supports Windows, Linux, and macOS, and is backward compatible with 2.0.11 projects. While designed for beginners with no programming or 3D modeling knowledge, experienced developers can also extend it via JavaScript plugins and custom .obj 3D models.

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    Coins Bench·6w

    The Only React Hooks Guide You’ll Actually Finish Reading.

    A beginner-friendly guide covering the six most essential React hooks: useState, useEffect, useRef, useCallback, useMemo, and useContext. Each hook is explained with real-world analogies, practical code examples, and clear guidance on when to use and when to avoid each one. Key pitfalls are highlighted, including the infinite loop trap in useEffect, stale closure issues, premature memoization, and context re-render cascades.

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    Bram.us·8w

    Introducing view-transitions-mock: A non-visual Polyfill for Same-Document View Transitions

    view-transitions-mock is a non-visual polyfill for the Same-Document View Transitions API, created to eliminate the need for defensive browser-support checks in your code. It implements the full JavaScript API surface of the View Transition spec (including ViewTransition promises, transitionRoot, activeViewTransition, and View Transition Types) without polyfilling the visual/animation aspects. Install via npm, call register() before using document.startViewTransition(), and your code runs without errors in all browsers. Registration can be tuned with requireTypes and forced options for fine-grained control.

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    Laravel News·9w

    The Inertia v3 Beta is Here

    Inertia v3 beta introduces major new features and breaking changes. Key additions include a built-in XHR HTTP client (making Axios optional), a new useHttp hook for standalone HTTP requests, optimistic update support across router/useForm/useHttp with automatic rollback, instant visits for immediate navigation feel, URL fragment preservation across redirects, SSR support in Vite dev mode, and a progress bar rewritten with the Popover API. Breaking changes include dropping support for React below v19, Svelte 4, Node.js below v24, and CommonJS builds. Several APIs have been renamed or removed. The release is not recommended for production use yet.

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    Socket·8w

    TC39 Advances Temporal to Stage 4 Alongside Several ECMAScri...

    TC39's March 2026 meeting officially advanced the Temporal API to Stage 4, making it part of the ECMAScript 2026 specification. Temporal replaces JavaScript's long-criticized Date object with immutable date/time types, built-in time zone and calendar support, and predictable arithmetic. The proposal took nearly a decade to complete, with contributions from Bloomberg, Igalia, Google, and Microsoft. Browser support has landed in Firefox and Chromium-based browsers, with partial Safari support, and TypeScript 6.0 includes type definitions. Other proposals advanced include Intl era and monthCode (Stage 4), Import text (Stage 3), Error stack accessor and Iterator includes (Stage 2.7), Intl unit protocol and Thenable curtailment (Stage 2), and Error code property (Stage 1).

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    Collections·7w

    Wasmer's Edge.js runs Node.js apps inside a WebAssembly sandbox

    Wasmer has open-sourced Edge.js, a JavaScript runtime that runs Node.js applications inside a WebAssembly sandbox using WASIX (an extension to WASI). Unlike Deno or Cloudflare Workers, Edge.js doesn't replace the Node.js API surface — it sandboxes only OS syscalls and native code via NAPI, letting existing Node.js v24 apps run unmodified. Wasmer claims it passes 3,592 of 3,626 Node.js compatibility tests, outperforming Bun and Deno on the same suite. The runtime supports V8 and JavaScriptCore, with QuickJS and SpiderMonkey planned. Performance overhead is 5-20% normally and up to 30% with full sandboxing. Notably, the project was built in weeks using OpenAI Codex. It targets AI and edge computing workloads where safely running untrusted Node.js code is a priority.

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    Chrome Developers·9w

    Make custom elements behave with scoped registries

    Scoped custom element registries are now available by default in Chrome 146 and Edge, solving the long-standing problem of name collisions in the global `window.customElements` registry. Developers can now create independent registries and scope them to a shadow root, a disconnected document, or an individual element. This enables multiple teams or libraries to define custom elements with the same tag name without conflicts, making micro-frontend and component library composition much more manageable. The feature requires no flags or origin trial opt-in in Chromium-based browsers.

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    Deno·7w

    Deno 2.7

    Deno 2.7 ships several notable improvements: full support for the Temporal API as a modern replacement for the legacy Date object, native Windows on ARM builds eliminating x86 emulation overhead, and support for the package.json overrides field for better Node.js compatibility. The release also introduces a simplified subprocess API, a new `deno create` command for project scaffolding, a `--compile` flag for installing npm packages as standalone executables, a `--self-extracting` flag for compiled binaries to extract embedded files to disk, and a `--check-js` flag for type-checking JavaScript files from the CLI.

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    Matt Smith·8w

    Native JSON modules are finally real

    Native JSON module imports using import attributes (`with { type: 'json' }`) are now supported natively in browsers, Node, Deno, and Bun — no bundler or build step required. The explicit type declaration removes ambiguity about how the runtime should handle the file, enables standard ESM caching semantics, and follows normal CORS rules. Compared to bundler-based JSON imports (which inline at build time), native JSON modules are fetched at runtime and cached like any ES module. Bundlers still offer advantages like inlining, asset hashing, and code splitting, but for simply importing JSON as a module, the platform has caught up. The import attributes pattern also extends beyond JSON, with CSS module scripts already supported in modern browsers.

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