TanStack DB: Reactive Apps Without Firebase

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Aug 11, 2025

Dive into the drama as Cloudflare and Perplexity clash over AI content scraping ethics. Discover the exciting launch of Vercel's AI SDK version 5 and the innovative TanStack DB for seamless state management in web apps. The introduction of GPT-5 brings deeper reasoning to AI interactions, raising caution about its use in health-related queries. Plus, hear about concerning trends in corporate culture affecting employee well-being, and enjoy some lighthearted tales of 3D printing adventures!

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INSIGHT

Robots.txt Blurring Lines

Perplexity says it overrides robots.txt for live user queries and may fetch blocked pages on demand.
That approach creates a gray area between user-driven retrieval and background crawling, risking unwanted indexing and caching.

ADVICE

Optimize For AI Bots Not Block Them

Optimize your content for AI agents instead of only trying to block them.
Make sure pages surface clear citations and pathways to drive readers back to your site.

INSIGHT

Vercel SDK Works Across Frameworks

Vercel AI SDK 5 offers a fully typed, customizable chat integration that runs across React, Svelte, Vue, and Angular.
That makes the SDK framework-agnostic and suitable beyond Next.js.

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There’s drama brewing between AI-answer engine company Perplexity and hosting platform Cloudflare, which recently declared it would actively block AI bots from crawling websites without the owners’ permission. Cloudflare received complaints, set up its own test sites, and then asked Perplexity pointed questions only - and got answers! Not a great look, Perplexity.

Two years after Vercel launched v1 of its AI SDK, it has dropped v5, and it’s got some major improvements. Rebuilt chat hooks, improved tool calling, more agentic controls, and it works with React, Svelte, Vue, and Angular. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, but it seems like Vercel’s got a winner on its hands.

Never one to rest on its laurels, the team behind the TanStack universe unveils TanStack DB. TanStack DB extends TanStack Query with collections, live queries and optimistic mutations client side for building super fast apps on sync without needing a Firebase subscription

In Lightning News this week, OpenAI released GTP-5. It’s better at all the things: writing, coding, and health questions, but are the improvements going to be so great we’ll actually notice? Time will tell.

Also, in disappointing news, Cognition, the AI company that scooped up the remains of Windsurf, has laid off the Windsurf employees it acquired, or told those who remain to expect 80-hour, six day a week, work weeks: another way to effectively reduce headcount. Let’s hope this doesn’t set a new precedent in Silicon Valley.

Timestamps:

00:53 - Drama between Cloudflare and Perplexity
09:15 - Vercel AI SDK 5
15:23 - TanStack DB update
19:28 - GPT-5
25:23 - A not-so-great Windsurf & Cognition update
30:51 - What’s making us happy

Links:

Paige - Vercel AI SDK 5
Jack - TanStack DB
TJ - Drama between Cloudflare and Perplexity
OpenAI GPT-5 arrives
A not-great Windsurf & Cognition update
Illinois blocks AI from being your therapist
A Guide To Hover And Pointer Media Queries (Smashing Magazine)
Paige - The Retrievals podcast
Jack - Creality CR-Scan Otter 3D Scanner
TJ - People I (Mostly) Admine

Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.