Science & Technology

Cloudflare just slop forked Next.js…

📚 Main topics

Vercel and Cloudflare rivalryNext.js apps have traditionally worked best on Vercel, while deploying them elsewhere often required tools like OpenNext to repackage Next.js build output. 0:31
Cloudflare’s vinext projectCloudflare rebuilt the Next.js API on Vite, aiming to make it easier to deploy Next.js-style apps on different platforms. AI helped get core features working quickly, with API coverage reaching 94%. 1:32
Migrating a newsletter appThe video tests vinext on a Next.js newsletter app. An agent skill helped with migration, but the project needed refactoring for Vite and still required follow-up fixes. 2:36

✨ Key takeaways

Potential performance gainsCloudflare reported builds up to 4.4 times faster and client bundles 57% smaller; the presenter’s own tests saw builds about five times faster, though they cautioned that the results may not be reliable. 3:39
Not production-ready for everyoneThe test app ran on Vite after migration, but the presenter didn’t consider switching worthwhile yet. 3:39

🧠 Lessons learned

Bleeding-edge software has costsEarly adopters may encounter broken features and compatibility issues, even when AI agents help with migration. 3:39
Understand generated codeCode agents can help, but developers still need to understand how the code works under the hood. 4:10

🏁 Conclusion/next steps

Keep an eye on vinextThe presenter plans to revisit the project in a few months rather than deploy it to production now. 4:10
Learn computer science fundamentalsThe video closes with a sponsor segment recommending Brilliant’s algorithmic thinking course. 4:10

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Transcript excerpt

0:00 Throughout history, there have been some rivalries that have shaped our lives as developers. Rails versus Django, SQL versus NoSQL, web components versus feeling the love and embrace of a woman. And just a few days ago, we got another update in one of my favorite niche tech rivalries, Vercel versus Cloudflare. If billionaires passive aggressively having a downtime measuring contest on your timeline isn't your thing, you may have missed that Guillermo from Vercel and Matthew from Cloudflare really don't like each other. And that rivalry got amped up even more last week when Cloudflare released vinext, a

0:31 re-implementation of the Next.js API built on V, essentially freeing up your Next.js app to be deployed anywhere. In this video, we'll break down how they did it, what it may mean for other open- source projects in the future, and find out if it actually works. It is March 2nd, 2026, and you're watching the code report. Love it or hate it, Next is still the most popular way to create a React app. But despite that, historically its biggest weakness has had nothing to do with its API, but rather its lack of deployment targets. If you have a next app and you want to

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