Simon Willison's Weblog
npub1cgctsayk4d52dfauphf94muyxm8fl9526mf50gdllgaf4agh6clqgexk9p@drss.io
llm-gemini 0.32
19 May 2026
**Release:** [llm-gemini 0.32](https://github.com/simonw/llm-gemini/releases/tag/0.32) > - New model `gemini-3.5-flash` for [Gemini 3.5
Gemini 3.5 Flash: more expensive, but Google plan to use it for everything
19 May 2026
Today at Google I/O, Google [released Gemini 3.5 Flash](https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/gemini-3-5/). This one skipped the `-preview` modifier and went
The last six months in LLMs in five minutes
19 May 2026
I put together these annotated slides from my five minute lightning talk at PyCon US 2026, using the [latest iteration](https://tools.simonwillison.net/annotated-presentations) of my [annotated
Glaucous-winged Gull, Brown Pelican, Snowy Egret, Canada Goose
18 May 2026
   Terence Eden continues his
Warelay -> OpenClaw
16 May 2026
In preparation for a lightning talk I'm giving at PyCon US [this afternoon](https://us.pycon.org/2026/schedule/presentation/175/) I decided to figure out how many names OpenClaw has *actually* had
Quoting Julia Evans
16 May 2026
> \[...] in the last 10 years I’ve learned to really love and respect CSS as a technology. > > So I decided years ago that I wanted to react to “CSS is hard” by getting better at CSS and
inaturalist-clumper 0.1
15 May 2026
**Release:** [inaturalist-clumper 0.1](https://github.com/simonw/inaturalist-clumper/releases/tag/0.1) Part of the infrastructure I use for [publishing my iNaturalist sightings on my
Western Gull, Rock Pigeon
15 May 2026
  Western Gull, Rock Pigeon, in Los Angeles Area
QR code generator
15 May 2026
**Tool:** [QR code generator](https://tools.simonwillison.net/qr-code-generator) Claude helped me build this tool for creating QR codes, for both text/URLs and for connecting to WiFi networks.
datasette-llm-limits 0.1a0
15 May 2026
**Release:** [datasette-llm-limits 0.1a0](https://github.com/datasette/datasette-llm-limits/releases/tag/0.1a0) This plugin works in conjunction with
Not so locked in any more
14 May 2026
This [Mitchell Hashimoto quote](https://simonwillison.net/2026/May/14/mitchell-hashimoto/) about Bun migrating from Zig to Rust reminded me of a similar conversation I had at a conference last week.
datasette-ip-rate-limit 0.1a0
14 May 2026
**Release:** [datasette-ip-rate-limit 0.1a0](https://github.com/datasette/datasette-ip-rate-limit/releases/tag/0.1a0) The [datasette.io](https://datasette.io/) site was being hammered by
Welcome to the Datasette blog
13 May 2026
[**Welcome to the Datasette blog**](https://datasette.io/blog/2026/new-blog/) We have a bunch of neat Datasette announcements in the pipeline so we decided it was time the project grew an official
Quoting Boris Mann
13 May 2026
> “11 AI agents” is meaningless as a phrase. > > If I said “I have 11 spreadsheets” or “I have 11 browser tabs” to do my work, it means about the same thing. — [Boris
CSP Allow-list Experiment
13 May 2026
**Tool:** [CSP Allow-list Experiment](https://tools.simonwillison.net/csp-allow) An experiment that shows that you can load an app in a CSP-protected sandboxed iframe (see [previous
datasette 1.0a29
12 May 2026
**Release:** [datasette 1.0a29](https://github.com/simonw/datasette/releases/tag/1.0a29) > - New `TokenRestrictions.abbreviated(datasette)` [utility
Quoting Mo Bitar
12 May 2026
> Now, if your CEO has never heard the phrase Ralph Loop, oh man, you are less than 30 days away from your next promotion. I'm not even exaggerating. Walk into his office, close the door, and say,
Quoting Mitchell Hashimoto
12 May 2026
> The thing about 90% of TDMs \[Technical Decision Makers] is that they're motivated primarily by NOT GETTING FIRED. These aren't people who browser Lobsters or push to GH on the weekend. These are
llm 0.32a2
12 May 2026
**Release:** [llm 0.32a2](https://github.com/simonw/llm/releases/tag/0.32a2) A bunch of useful stuff in this [LLM](https://llm.datasette.io/) alpha, but the most important detail is this one: >
Thoughts on GitLab's workforce reduction" and "structural and strategic decisions"
11 May 2026
[**GitLab Act 2**](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/gitlab-act-2/) There's a lot going on in this announcement from GitLab about the "workforce reduction" and "structural and strategic decisions" they
GitLab Act 2
11 May 2026
[**GitLab Act 2**](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/gitlab-act-2/) There's a lot going on in this announcement from GitLab about the "structural and strategic decisions" they are making with respect to
Quoting James Shore
11 May 2026
> Your AI coding agent, the one you use to write code, needs to reduce your maintenance costs. Not by a little bit, either. You write code twice as quick now? Better hope you’ve halved your
Your AI Use Is Breaking My Brain
11 May 2026
[**Your AI Use Is Breaking My Brain**](https://www.404media.co/your-ai-use-is-breaking-my-brain/) Excellent, angry piece by Jason Koebler on how AI writing online is becoming impossible to avoid,
Using LLM in the shebang line of a script
11 May 2026
**TIL:** [Using LLM in the shebang line of a script](https://til.simonwillison.net/llms/llm-shebang) Kim\_Bruning [on Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48073246#48090590): > But
Learning on the Shop floor
11 May 2026
[**Learning on the Shop floor**](https://twitter.com/tobi/status/2053121182044451016) Tobias Lütke describes Shopify's internal coding agent tool, River, which operates entirely in public on their
Quoting New York Times Editors’ Note
10 May 2026
> *This article was updated after The Times learned that a remark attributed to Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative leader, was in fact an A.I.-generated summary of his views about Canadian politics
Quoting Andrew Quinn
10 May 2026
> One could say in the first quarter-century of my life, that while I was always fascinated by programming, I could never overcome the guilt of not really knowing whether the tool I am building right
Quoting Luke Curley
9 May 2026
> WebRTC is designed to **degrade and drop my prompt** during poor network conditions. > > wtf my dude > > WebRTC aggressively drops audio packets to keep latency low. If you’ve ever heard
Using Claude Code: The Unreasonable Effectiveness of HTML
8 May 2026
[**Using Claude Code: The Unreasonable Effectiveness of HTML**](https://twitter.com/trq212/status/2052809885763747935) Thought-provoking piece by Thariq Shihipar (on the Claude Code team at
llm-gemini 0.31
7 May 2026
**Release:** [llm-gemini 0.31](https://github.com/simonw/llm-gemini/releases/tag/0.31) > - `gemini-3.1-flash-lite` is [no longer a
Big Words
7 May 2026
**Tool:** [Big Words](https://tools.simonwillison.net/big-words) I'm using my [vibe coded macOS presentations tool](https://simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/25/present/) to put together a talk, and I
Behind the Scenes Hardening Firefox with Claude Mythos Preview
7 May 2026
[**Behind the Scenes Hardening Firefox with Claude Mythos Preview**](https://hacks.mozilla.org/2026/05/behind-the-scenes-hardening-firefox/) Fascinating, in-depth details on how Mozilla used their
Notes on the xAI/Anthropic data center deal
7 May 2026
There weren't a lot of big new announcements from Anthropic at yesterday's Code w/ Claude event, but the biggest by far was the deal they've struck with SpaceX/xAI to use "all of the capacity of
GitHub Repo Stats
7 May 2026
**Tool:** [GitHub Repo Stats](https://tools.simonwillison.net/github-repo-stats) One of the things I always look for when evaluating a new GitHub repository is the number of commits it has... but
Live blog: Code w/ Claude 2026
6 May 2026
I'm at Anthropic's Code w/ Claude event today. Here's my live blog of the morning keynote sessions. Tags: [ai](https://simonwillison.net/tags/ai),
Vibe coding and agentic engineering are getting closer than I'd like
6 May 2026
I recently talked with Joseph Ruscio about AI coding tools for Heavybit's High Leverage podcast: [Ep. #9, The AI Coding Paradigm Shift with Simon
datasette-referrer-policy 0.1
5 May 2026
**Release:** [datasette-referrer-policy 0.1](https://github.com/datasette/datasette-referrer-policy/releases/tag/0.1) The OpenStreetMap tiles on the Datasette [global-power-plants
Our AI started a cafe in Stockholm
5 May 2026
[**Our AI started a cafe in Stockholm**](https://andonlabs.com/blog/ai-cafe-stockholm) Andon Labs previously [started an AI-run retail store](https://andonlabs.com/blog/andon-market-launch) in San
datasette-llm 0.1a7
5 May 2026
**Release:** [datasette-llm 0.1a7](https://github.com/datasette/datasette-llm/releases/tag/0.1a7) > - Mechanism for [configuring default
llm-echo 0.5a0
5 May 2026
**Release:** [llm-echo 0.5a0](https://github.com/simonw/llm-echo/releases/tag/0.5a0) > - New `-o thinking 1` option to help test against [LLM
Quoting John Gruber
5 May 2026
> So it’s well known that Y Combinator owns *some* stake in OpenAI. But how big is that stake? This seems like devilishly difficult information to obtain. I asked around and a little birdie who
Granite 4.1 3B SVG Pelican Gallery
4 May 2026
[**Granite 4.1 3B SVG Pelican Gallery**](https://simonw.github.io/granite-4.1-3b-gguf-pelicans/) IBM released their [Granite 4.1
Quoting Andy Masley
4 May 2026
> \[...] Between 2000 and 2024, farmers sold in total a Colorado-sized chunk of land all on their own, 77 times all land on data center property in 2028, and grew more food than ever on what was
April 2026 newsletter
4 May 2026
I just sent out the April edition of my [sponsors-only monthly newsletter](https://github.com/sponsors/simonw/). If you are a sponsor (or if you start a sponsorship now) you can [access it
TRE Python binding — ReDoS robustness demo
4 May 2026
**Research:** [TRE Python binding — ReDoS robustness demo](https://github.com/simonw/research/tree/main/tre-python-binding#readme) If it's [good enough for
Redis Array Playground
4 May 2026
**Tool:** [Redis Array Playground](https://tools.simonwillison.net/redis-array) Salvatore Sanfilippo submitted [a PR](https://github.com/redis/redis/pull/15162) adding a new data type - arrays - to
Quoting Anthropic
3 May 2026
> We used an automatic classifier which judged sycophancy by looking at whether Claude showed a willingness to push back, maintain positions when challenged, give praise proportional to the merit of
Sightings
2 May 2026
[**/elsewhere/sightings/**](https://simonwillison.net/elsewhere/sighting/) I have a new camera (a Canon R6 Mark II) so I'm taking a lot more photos of birds. I share my best wildlife photos on
llm-openai-via-codex 0.1a0
23 Apr 2026
**Release:** [llm-openai-via-codex 0.1a0](https://github.com/simonw/llm-openai-via-codex/releases/tag/0.1a0) Hijacks your Codex CLI credentials to make API calls with LLM, as described [in my post