🍿 I made an AI minion and it changed how I build apps


Hey Reader,

Last week, I gave a talk at React Paris about Building your own AI minion, basically an AI Agent Toolkit for modern apps. I show my workflow and how I have automated a lot.

The room was full, the energy was electric ⚑, and it turned into one of my favourite talks I’ve given. You can πŸŽ₯ watch the video here and the slides are here.

🍿 Our Weekly Snack: Stop calling "redirect()" inside a try/catch block in Next.js

Stop calling "redirect()" inside a try/catch block in Next.js

πŸ’‘ Here's Why

When you add a redirect() from `next/navigation` in a try/catch block, the redirect() throws a special internal error on purpose and that's how Next.js App Router as a framework knows to redirect the user.

However, if you add redirect in a try block, your catch block will catch it as it's just like any other error and the user won't redirect.

🧠 The Fix

β†’ Move redirect() outside the try/catch block so your catch won't catch it.

🎁 If you're interested, you can download this free cheatsheet covering 29 common mistakes just like this one in React and Next.js.

πŸš€ Latest Frontend News

LIBRARY UPDATES

Shadcn just dropped npx shadcn apply.A single command that swaps your entire design system: components, themes, colors, CSS variables, fonts, and icons all at once. Apply, test, repeat

Vercel just dropped a new agent skill for React View Transitions. Your coding agent can now add smooth, native browser animations between pages and UI states

Next.js now has a stable Adapter API that allows it to be deployed to Vercel, Cloudflare, Netlify, AWS, or anywhere else using the same public contract, no vendor lock-in

TanStack DB 0.6 adds local storage and offline support. Think of it like giving your app a memory that doesn't disappear when you close it or lose wifi

​
​ GREAT TOOLS

Stop uploading your files to random servers. FileWash runs everything client-side, image compression, PDF merging, background removal, all in the browser, nothing leaves your device
​
​ AI

Achieve 100% success rate by including Agents.md. Here, is the eval score by Next.js cross Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, and Gemini CLI.

Stop merging agent PRs, Vercel just shared their internal framework for catching the stuff agents miss before it hits production
​

GREAT READ

Isomorphic JavaScript means your code runs on the server and the browser. This is how Next.js, Nuxt, and SvelteKit work under the hood, here's a breakdown of the concept​
​
​ SECURITY VULNERABILITIES

Axios was recently compromised via social engineering of the maintainer's account


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If you’ve published a blog post or shipped something, feel free to reply to this email and it comes straight to my inbox. I’m always looking for great community work to consider featuring.

All past newsletters can be found here. You can email me at me@kulkarniankita.com to advertise/sponsor the newsletter.

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See you next week!

Ankita Kulkarni

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