software complexity sells via developer ego

happy holidays!

I think https://github.com/zachleat/import-module-string is one of the best things I’ve built this year (even if no one else does 😅)

Writing database queries is too close to the metal. Best practices don’t work! It’s time to make SQL enterprise-scale with utility classes.

https://tailwindsql.xyz/

Curious how to use Node.js’s new Type Stripping feature for TypeScript compatibility with Eleventy? We have you covered: https://www.11ty.dev/docs/languages/typescript/#configuration

“a one-way mirror, also called two-way mirror…” — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-way_mirror

CommonJS? ESM? TypeScript? Wait, even CommonJS TypeScript?? Eleventy can run them all.

https://www.11ty.dev/docs/cjs-esm/

Which should you choose? It depends! The social-media sized answer is: ESM 😅

Tiny bug fix release of `<table-saw>`: https://github.com/zachleat/table-saw/releases/tag/v1.0.7

👍✅ Runtimes supporting CommonJS and ESM
👎❌ Modules dual publishing both CommonJS and ESM

Deno both supports and absolutely does not support CommonJS 😅

1️⃣ https://docs.deno.com/examples/cjs_to_esm_tutorial/
2️⃣ https://deno.com/blog/commonjs-is-hurting-javascript
3️⃣ https://docs.deno.com/runtime/fundamentals/node/#commonjs-support

a dad hat that says “corny on main”

Currently wondering what it feels like to work so hard on an open-licensed typeface only to have it co-opted by very terrible and very famous people as part of their core brand identity.

Thankful to @jacklorusso for their 11ty docs contribution detailing how to use @deno_land’s new `dx` command with Eleventy: https://www.11ty.dev/docs/javascript-runtime/#deno

Coming to a canary near you: adding support for Node’s Module Compile Cache feature (existing Node 20+ minimum is unchanged but this is featured tested and available in Node 22.8+ only).

https://github.com/11ty/eleventy/issues/3499

ok fine but can react server components show emotional vulnerability too

Eleventy Core Dependency Watch (2025 Edition)

https://www.11ty.dev/blog/dependency-watch/

v4.0.0.alpha.6 (compared with v3) reduces:

1️⃣ dependencies 21.6%
2️⃣ 3rd-party dependencies 27.6%
3️⃣ node_modules weight 33.3%

is software getting better?

New core pre-release: v4.0.0-alpha.6

https://github.com/11ty/eleventy/releases/tag/v4.0.0-alpha.6

Note: this includes a new `@​11ty/nunjucks` package.

my hot take is that I think every VC-funded software project should report how much runway they have left every month

TIL about Carlito, a typeface (derived from Lato) made by Łukasz Dziedzic — the same type designer that made Lato!

https://github.com/googlefonts/carlito

New core pre-release: v4.0.0-alpha.5

Full release notes: https://github.com/11ty/eleventy/releases/tag/v4.0.0-alpha.5

if you look in the footer of https://blog.fontawesome.com/ and tap on the Font Awesome flag you’ll see a variant of this component made to work with Font Awesome icons (and reusing the colors from the header image of the blog post too: https://blog.fontawesome.com/blog-awesome-to-11ty/#colors) 🥰

📮🔒 New post on the blog:

Securely publishing our packages to npm

https://www.11ty.dev/blog/npm-security/

It’s decorative <snow-fall> season, friends: https://www.zachleat.com/web/snow-fall/

Maintenance update: to simplify our docs footprint (and in reaction to deployment retention policies), we will maintain historical versioned branches of our docs for *major* versions only:

https://v2.11ty.dev/
https://v1.11ty.dev/
https://v0.11ty.dev/

Previously hosted minor version subdomains (e.g. https://v0-12-0.11ty.dev) will redirect to their respective major version.

Appreciate y’all!

DNS stands for “DO NOT meSs with this or you’re going to have a bad time”

📮🔒 New post on the blog

No more tokens! Locking down npm Publish Workflows

https://www.zachleat.com/web/npm-security/

Includes a checklist of 8 important things you can do to improve your security footprint when using GitHub and npm.

As a security precaution I had previously configured every single 11ty repository to have its own single-package-scoped npm token (there were probably ~30 or so), so this is a lovely improvement 😅

This year we’re thankful for everyone that took a few minutes to fill out our 8 question survey (with 5 multiple choice questions 😅).

If you haven’t yet, we are still accepting submissions! It will help us prioritize the future of our project! Appreciate y’all!

https://www.11ty.dev/survey/2025/