PodRocket - A web development podcast from LogRocket Rolldown and VoidZero's vision for the future of JavaScript tooling with Alexander Lichter
Sep 9, 2025
Alexander Lichter, DevRel at VoidZero, dives into the innovative bundler Rolldown, designed to enhance the JavaScript development experience with faster builds and better scalability. He discusses the promise of unified tooling within the JavaScript ecosystem, incorporating insights from OXC and Oxlint. The conversation also highlights the push for simpler, more efficient tools as a counter to the complexity of traditional solutions. Plus, Lichter teases exciting details for ViteConf 2024, focusing on community input and future innovations.
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Combining Best Ideas For A Faster Bundler
- Rolldown unifies the best features from Rollup, ESBuild, and Webpack while leveraging Rust for speed.
- The goal is API compatibility so users can switch with minimal friction and better enterprise scalability.
When Users Don't Notice The Switch
- Alexander notes that the best compliment is when users don't notice the bundler change because everything just works.
- He emphasizes Rolldown aims to keep Vite's developer experience while improving speed and enterprise behavior.
Narrow Plugin Scope To Gain Performance
- Use existing JS plugins with Rolldown and prefer plugin hook filters to avoid per-file overhead.
- Add regex/glob filters so the Rust side can skip unnecessary plugin calls and speed builds.