Home/2026
Archive

Year 2026

1,048 articles published in 2026.

SRE & Ops — KernelEvolve: How Meta’s Ranking Engineer Agent Optimizes AI Infrastructure

KernelEvolve: How Meta’s Ranking Engineer Agent Optimizes AI Infrastructure

This is the second post in the Ranking Engineer Agent blog series exploring the autonomous AI capabilities accelerating Meta’s Ads Ranking innovation. The previous post introduced Ranking Engineer Agent’s ML exploration capability, which autonomously designs, executes, and analyzes ranking model experiments. This post covers how to optimize the low-level infrastructure that makes those models run

CWChris Wiltz·April 2, 2026SRE & Ops
Systems — Optimizing Vercel Sandbox snapshots

Optimizing Vercel Sandbox snapshots

Vercel Sandbox snapshots let you save and restore your entire filesystem. Learn how we optimized snapshot restores with parallel downloads, streaming decompression, and local NVMe caching.

VVercel·April 2, 2026Systems
Frontend — Quick Hit #117

Quick Hit #117

Safari TP 240 becomes the first to ship the revert-rule CSS keyword, which rolls the rule back to when it didn’t have its current value.

DSDaniel SchwarzDaniel Schwarz·April 1, 2026Frontend
AI & ML — Meta Adaptive Ranking Model: Bending the Inference Scaling Curve to Serve LLM-Scale Models for Ads

Meta Adaptive Ranking Model: Bending the Inference Scaling Curve to Serve LLM-Scale Models for Ads

Meta continues to lead the industry in utilizing groundbreaking AI Recommendation Systems (RecSys) to deliver better experiences for people, and better results for advertisers. To reach the next frontier of performance, we are scaling Meta’s Ads Recommender runtime models to LLM-scale & complexity to further a deeper understanding of people’s interests and intent. This increase […]

CWChris Wiltz·March 31, 2026AI & ML
Networking — From Custom to Open: Scalable Network Probing and HTTP/3 Readiness with Prometheus

From Custom to Open: Scalable Network Probing and HTTP/3 Readiness with Prometheus

The Problem: Legacy Tooling and Its Limitations Currently, Slack utilizes a hybrid approach to network measurement, incorporating both internal (such as traffic between AWS Availability Zones) and external (monitoring traffic from the public internet into Slack’s infrastructure) solutions. These tools comprise a combination of commercial SaaS offerings and custom-built network testing solutions de

CPCarlo PreciadoCarlo Preciado·March 31, 2026Networking
SRE & Ops — AI for American-Produced Cement and Concrete

AI for American-Produced Cement and Concrete

Meta is continuing its long-term roadmap to help the construction industry leverage AI to produce high-quality and more sustainable concrete mixes, as well as those exclusively produced in the United States. Concurrent with the 2026 American Concrete Institute (ACI) Spring Convention, Meta is releasing a new AI model for designing concrete mixes – Bayesian Optimization […]

CWChris Wiltz·March 30, 2026SRE & Ops
SRE & Ops — A one-line Kubernetes fix that saved 600 hours a year

A one-line Kubernetes fix that saved 600 hours a year

When we investigated why our Atlantis instance took 30 minutes to restart, we discovered a bottleneck in how Kubernetes handles volume permissions. By adjusting the fsGroupChangePolicy, we reduced restart times to 30 seconds.

BSBraxton SchaferBraxton Schafer·March 26, 2026SRE & Ops
Design & UX — Generative UI Notes

Generative UI Notes

Looking at research and experiments that are designed to automatically generate user interfaces based on user preferences.

GGGeoff GrahamGeoff Graham·March 26, 2026Design & UX
Design & UX — The Site-Search Paradox: Why The Big Box Always Wins — Smashing Magazine

The Site-Search Paradox: Why The Big Box Always Wins — Smashing Magazine

Success in modern UX isn’t about having the most content. It’s about having the most findable content. Yet even with more data and better tools than ever, internal search often fails, leaving users to rely on global search engines to find a single page on a local site. Why does the “Big Box” still win, and how can we bring users back?

CWCarrie WebsterCarrie Webster·March 26, 2026Design & UX
Systems — Quick Hit #114

Quick Hit #114

Firefox 149 and Safari 26.4 now allow for querying the @container name only.

DSDaniel SchwarzDaniel Schwarz·March 25, 2026Systems
AI & ML — Updates to GitHub Copilot interaction data usage policy

Updates to GitHub Copilot interaction data usage policy

From April 24 onward, interaction data—specifically inputs, outputs, code snippets, and associated context—from Copilot Free, Pro, and Pro+ users will be used to train and improve our AI models unless they opt out.

MRMario RodriguezMario Rodriguez·March 25, 2026AI & ML
Performance — Sandboxing AI agents, 100x faster

Sandboxing AI agents, 100x faster

We’re introducing Dynamic Workers, which allow you to execute AI-generated code in secure, lightweight isolates. This approach is 100 times faster than traditional containers, enabling millisecond startup times for AI agent sandboxing.

KVKenton Varda, SunilKenton Varda, Sunil·March 24, 2026Performance
Distributed — Testing Font Scaling For Accessibility With Figma Variables — Smashing Magazine

Testing Font Scaling For Accessibility With Figma Variables — Smashing Magazine

Accessibility works best when it blends into everyday design workflows. The goal isn’t a big transformation, but simple work processes that fit naturally into a team’s routine. With Figma variables, testing font size increases becomes part of the design flow itself, making accessibility feel almost inevitable rather than optional.

RFRuben Ferreira DuarteRuben Ferreira Duarte·March 24, 2026Distributed
Engineering — How Stripe Radar helps prevent free trial abuse

How Stripe Radar helps prevent free trial abuse

Radar now helps prevent free trial abuse with just one click. When enabled, Radar predicts the presence of abusive behavior that violates common trial terms, such as repeated trial signup or missed cancellations, with 90% accuracy.

YLYu-Hsin LinYu-Hsin Lin·March 24, 2026Engineering
Frontend — Inside Gen 13- how we built our most powerful server yet

Inside Gen 13- how we built our most powerful server yet

Cloudflare's Gen 13 servers introduce AMD EPYC™ Turin 9965 processors and a transition to 100 GbE networking to meet growing traffic demands. In this technical deep dive, we explain the engineering rationale behind each major component selection.

SJSyona, JqSyona, Jq·March 23, 2026Frontend
Frontend — Sneaky Header Blocker Trick

Sneaky Header Blocker Trick

There is a lil’ UI detail on this blog. Most people don’t even notice it, but the ones who do often reach out, asking how on earth it works. It feels like it defies the rules of CSS! In this blog post, I’ll break down the surprisingly-straightforward implementation so you can start using this trick yourself.

JWJosh W. Comeau·March 23, 2026Frontend
Engineering — Quick Hit #112

Quick Hit #112

Bramus notes that background-image will soon support the light-dark() function.

DSDaniel SchwarzDaniel Schwarz·March 20, 2026Engineering
Databases — Build knowledge agents without embeddings

Build knowledge agents without embeddings

Open source file-system and knowledge based agent template. Build AI agents that stay up to date with your knowledge base. Grep, find, and cat across your sources, no embeddings, no vector DB.

VVercel·March 20, 2026Databases
Distributed — How Slack Rebuilt Notifications 📣

How Slack Rebuilt Notifications 📣

Introduction 🔔 At Slack, notifications are how teams stay in the loop, but they can also become overwhelming when not designed with intention. Our goal was to make staying informed feel effortless. We set out to rebuild one of Slack’s most complicated systems from the ground up by bringing calm, consistency, and clarity to the…

FCFrances CoronelFrances Coronel·March 19, 2026Distributed
Performance — Introducing Custom Regions for precision data control

Introducing Custom Regions for precision data control

We are expanding Regional Services with new pre-defined regions and the launch of Custom Regions. Customers can now define precise geographical boundaries for data processing, tailored to meet their compliance and performance needs.

ABAndrew Berglund, Erik EngstromAndrew Berglund, Erik Engstrom·March 18, 2026Performance