WeAreDevelopers Dev Digest

Issue 176: Expensive Agents, taking over VSCode and safer Vibe Coding

WeAreDevelopers World Congress 9-11/7/25 - get 15% off using code devdigest

Hello fellow developer, 

As we are busy at the WeAreDevelopers World Congress doing things live, we give you two videos this time recorded at CodeCrafts - also live. We are also sorry if you can't be with us in Berlin, but this might give you a similar vibe. If you are here, come and say hi! Check out what Bjorna Kalaja had to say about sustainability of software in the age of AI, and Jackie explaining what Web App Sec is about. 

What's happening in AI

• Does AI make us all CTOs?
• AGI is not right around the corner!
• What can agents actually do?
• Google issues company-wide AI coding guidance to software engineers
• Spending Too Much Money on a Coding Agent
• Writing Code Was Never The Bottleneck

Security and Privacy

• How to write to RAM directly
• Exploiting IDE Extensions is Easy so secure Your VSCode!
• Rachel Tobac and the Art of Social Engineering
• How to take over a Marketplace using a VSCode Fork
• Meta and Yandex are de-anonymizing Android users’ web browsing identifiers

Software Development

• Can AI solve the Async Queue Programming Interview Question?
• Microsoft open-sources VS Code Copilot Chat extension on GitHub
• Worker Threads in Node.js: A Complete Guide for Multithreading in JavaScript
• Rules Files for Safer Vibe Coding
• Local-first software You own your data, in spite of the cloud
• Serving 200 million requests per day with a cgi-bin

Tips, Tricks and Tools

• opencode - an AI coding agent, built for the terminal.
• Anubis is a Web AI Firewall and the story of its creator.
• Every tool you need to work with URL conversions in one place.
• Expose Email Scams. Instantly.
• Hurl - run HTTP requests defined in a simple plain text format.

Procrastination corner and Wonderful Weird Web

• paint: a timeline of all the tools we used to paint on computers
• A rare look inside the durability lab where Apple tortures its products
• ConsoleChat.io - The Underground Developer Meeting Room.
• The Janet Jackson song that is a CVE

• Lies per Second, Meetings per Decision Ratio, and other important biz metrics
• Half the work at Salesforce is done by AI according to CEO Marc Benioff.
• Windows is getting rid of the Blue Screen of Death after 40 years.
• Most managers now rely on AI for hiring and firing.
• My questions for prospective employers (Director/VP roles)
• Employers Are Buried in A.I.-Generated Résumés

Companies to check:

• Senior Produktmanager - German-speaking at Bonial International
• Senior Software Engineer - Cloud at SKIDATA
• Lead Software Engineer at MARKT-PILOT
• Java / Kotlin Developer (Cloud) at PROSOZ Herten
• Senior Backend Engineer (.NET) at Apaleo

More jobs here: Remote positions - Germany - Austria