Full Description

The latest wrinkle for AI coding assistant tools like Cursor and Windsurf is known as the Model Context Protocol (MCP). MCP is an open protocol that allows users to provide custom tools and services to agentic LLMs like calling a third party weather service. Jack gave it a shot and was less than impressed with the experience, but it’s early days yet and MCPs can only improve. In further AI news, OpenAI has introduced a new deep research agent designed to conduct multi-step research on the internet for complex tasks. Just give it a prompt requiring research (like which model of washing machine to buy), and ChatGPT will find, analyze, and synthesize hundreds of online sources to create a comprehensive report at the level of a research analyst. It takes 5 to 30 minutes to complete its work, but will notify users when it’s done, and share a final report within the chat. For now, deep research is only available to Pro users, but it will roll out to Plus and Team subscribers in the future. And as it turns out, the upgrade to React 19 broke React’s own Create React App (CRA) starter repo and the community wants it fixed and deprecated, as it’s no longer the recommended way to build a new React project in the docs. Mark Erikson of Redux fame, opens a GitHub issue in the repo suggesting updates and solutions and the official React team acquiesces to fix the repo for now, and deprecate it in the docs. Dan Abramov announces he’s leaving Bluesky after working with the startup for over a year in order to spend more time with his family and take a much needed break. GitHub Copilot jumps into the agentic game with Copilot Edits. Now, Copilot can iterate on its own code, recognize errors and fix them automatically, run tests from the terminal, and even analyze run-time errors with self-healing capabilities. And the Oracle v. Deno trademark legal battle continues with Oracle filing a motion to dismiss on the flimsiest of arguments. The CSS position of sticky is this week’s Fire Starter topic. Although sticky has been around since 2015, it’s still a bit trickier to grasp than some of the other positions. Paige ended up using sticky in her code recently and learned the tricky to sticky. In order for one element to float over the top of other elements, they must all be siblings within the same container element. If you can remember that, sticky should work like a charm, no position fixed needed.

Links

• OpenAI introduces deep research agent
• Model Context Protocol (MCP) on Cursor
• MCP on Windsurf
• Create React App and React 19
• Issue to add Astro to the React docs
• Dan Abramov leaves Bluesky
• Oracle v. Deno trademark update
• GitHub Copilot introduces agents with Copilot Edits
• CSS position sticky
• Handheld compressed air duster
• Finishing a custom LED movie poster Raspberry Pi project
• Cannondale Topstone bike