Your new favorite model? Plus, read tips on becoming a better engineer, why real work beats memorizing DSA for interviews, CSS selector hierarchy, and more.

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Welcome, Developers! đź‘‹

Claude's latest model leads the SWE benchmarks, plus we explore what separates good engineering taste from technical skill, challenge the DSA obsession, decode CSS specificity rules, and examine how designers should structure files for AI agents.

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đź”– The Reading Room

Articles we have hand-picked for you:

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is here

Claude Sonnet is already the model of choice for many developers and its next iteration is here with better reasoning and performance across various domains. Besides coding improvements, it's been optimized as an agent to navigate browsers, fill spreadsheets, and complete computer tasks autonomously.

By Anthropic →

What is “good taste” in software engineering?

You can be technically strong but have poor taste, or technically weak with excellent taste. Engineers must balance competing priorities like speed vs. readability, correctness vs. flexibility, and scalability vs. development speed. Good taste means selecting values that fit your specific context rather than rigidly applying universal "best practices." 

By Sean Goedecke →

Testing is better than Data Structures

New developers spend too much time grinding data structures and algorithms instead of building practical skills. While DSA helps with interviews, real software engineering rarely involves implementing sorting algorithms or balancing trees. Testing skills stand out more to employers and actually get used daily on the job.

By Ned Batchelder →

Let’s Be Specific: CSS Specificity Explained

Ever wondered why your CSS styles don't apply as expected? This guide explains the browser algorithm that determines which CSS declarations apply when multiple rules target the same element. Learn the ID-CLASS-TYPE scoring system and avoid styling conflicts with proper selector hierarchy.

By Courtney Hackshaw →

Why you should care about design context

As agentic coding tools become mainstream, designers must structure files more thoughtfully than ever. Clear organization, proper naming conventions, and linked design systems help AI agents generate accurate, production-ready code from Figma designs.

By Thomas Lowry →

⏳ Back in Time

Most clicks from last newsletter:

đź”— The Link Lounge 

Unordered finds from around the web:

Find something cool? You can send us links to feature here via email.

đź§° The Toolbox

Tools and products we're excited about today:

Chrome DevTools MCP

Chrome DevTools MCP connects AI coding assistants to a live Chrome browser via the Model Context Protocol, enabling them to navigate pages, inspect DOM/CSS, capture performance metrics, read console logs, and debug issues in real-time based on actual browser feedback.

Learn more →

Claude Code 2.0

Claude Code now features autonomous operation with checkpoints for safe code exploration, subagents for parallel task delegation, a native VS Code extension, better terminal interface with searchable history and much more.

Learn more →

Agentic Commerce Protocol 

Agentic Commerce Protocol is an open-source standard enabling AI agents to securely initiate checkouts with businesses using existing commerce infrastructure. It's being developed jointly by Stripe and OpenAI.

Learn more →

GitButler

GitButler is a Git client enabling simultaneous work on multiple branches through virtual branches that organize file changes while keeping them applied to your working directory. 

Learn more →

Keep Your SSN Off The Dark Web

Every day, data brokers profit from your sensitive info—phone number, DOB, SSN—selling it to the highest bidder. And who’s buying it?

  • Best case: companies target you with ads.

  • Worst case: scammers and identity thieves.

It's time you check out Incogni. It scrubs your personal data from the web, confronting the world’s data brokers on your behalf.


Use code SITEPOINT for 55% off Annual Plans and start removing your personal data today.

Protect your privacy

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