This week’s issue is all about evolution and consolidation. Node.js continues its glow-up, with built-in replacements for popular NPM packages such as chalk, glob, and even dotenv, drastically reducing dependency clutter while improving performance and security. React takes a big organisational leap with the newly announced React Foundation, backed by Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft, to ensure the project’s long-term independence.
Mastra enters the scene as a TypeScript-first framework for building AI applications, while ESLint 10 is shaping up to redefine rule authoring and configuration. Over on the CSS side, you’ll find exciting experiments like CSS Extras (a treasure chest of custom functions), articles on view transitions now fully supported across major browsers, and some beautifully practical colour system tutorials. Also worth a pause: an adorably tragic 404 page and a fascinating post about the tiny dot that broke Kotlin.
Happy reading!
https://nodesource.com/blog/nodejs-features-replacing-npm-packages
The React Foundation will be led by a board of directors, with Seth Webster as executive director, to guide funding and resources for the React community in a vendor‑neutral way. Founding members include major contributors like Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and others, with plans to welcome more in the future.
https://react.dev/blog/2025/10/07/introducing-the-react-foundation
I’m trying to keep FE news to Frontend, but naturally, those boundaries are so blurred, and it feels like this is a totally appropriate post for FEDs, right?
“Purpose-built for TypeScript and designed around established AI patterns, Mastra gives you everything you need to build great AI applications out-of-the-box.”
https://eslint.org/blog/2025/10/whats-coming-in-eslint-10.0.0/
Interesting that the concept is similar to what is used in Svelte or React, although the syntax is slightly different, of course. It looks like libraries are settling into some pattern which works best, which is good.
https://www.telerik.com/blogs/vue-basics-state-management-vue
https://svelte.dev/docs/mcp/overview
https://evilmartians.com/chronicles/how-to-add-fast-client-side-search-to-astro-static-sites
https://github.com/embedpdf/embed-pdf-viewer
This package includes ~50 CSS custom functions. It will cover math, colour, typography, layout and more.
https://github.com/sindresorhus/css-extras/tree/main
Really interesting lib as it shows powerful CSS features, take a look at available functions: https://github.com/sindresorhus/css-extras/blob/main/index.css
https://codepen.io/jkantner/pen/YPwZWoy
Well-written guide on website redesign steps, principles and concepts. Also, I really like this simple but elegant website.
https://16by9.net/handbook/introduction
If working on a design system and want to create lighter and darker colours from the base colour quickly, then this is a great example.
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And more in the post, of course
https://piccalil.li/blog/a-pragmatic-guide-to-modern-css-colours-part-one/
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/blog/view-transitions-beginner-guide/
On other news, Firefox 144.0 will support transitions, and that means that all Major browsers are covered
https://www.firefox.com/en-US/firefox/144.0/releasenotes/
https://webkit.org/blog/17474/css-grid-a-helpful-mental-model-and-the-power-of-grid-lines/
If nothing else, you can learn a new word - Variablizing Things. That shape() is indeed a powerful drawing tool.
https://frontendmasters.com/blog/modern-css-round-out-tabs/
Personalised Apps are already here, but with AI, this could be on the next level with hyper-personalisation.
https://odannyboy.medium.com/ai-needs-ui-31480100e7d8
When something has remained true for 26 years, it will likely apply to future generations of user interfaces as well.
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/
https://newsletter.eng-leadership.com/p/how-to-use-ai-to-help-with-software
Fascinating bug-catching story where a tiny dot on top of i broke the code, or was it because the dot was missing? Anyway, excellent Friday’s read!
https://sam-cooper.medium.com/the-country-that-broke-kotlin-84bdd0afb237