Do Frameworks Still Matter in the Age of AI Coding?
Do Frameworks Matter Anymore?
In 2026, with agentic programming and vibe coding on the rise, does the web framework you choose still matter? Brooks Lybrand, who has worked on open source frameworks full-time for three years, examines the conventional wisdom that React has won and that models are best with it. He argues that if frameworks truly don't matter, you have no reason to use React—and if React gives you an advantage, then frameworks do matter. He also asks why not embrace Web Components if LLMs handle frontend code so well.
You're either using a framework, or building a framework, and building a framework is really hard.
- Lio
Given the choice, I think I would prefer to go as browser native as possible.
Library code is useful for abstraction but browser native APIs are always going to be more stable over the long term.
If I have to vibe code now then at the very least I should be able to take advantage of agents to reduce the number of external "moving parts" involved by going native.
e.g. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_compone...
Why bother with an external framework when it's built in? My familiarity with React no longer matters.
I'll probably move towards using library code only for things like cross compatibility shims, to be removed over time, but that's about it.
- cadamsdotcom
Frameworks, linters, compilers.. they contain codified lessons you'd be silly to not leverage in your work - agentic or otherwise. Using what others have built before you helps you get there faster.
Making your own framework is great if you're in no hurry at all - maybe you want to learn, or maybe that's part of what you're selling. For everyone else, use the approach that gives you the most leverage.
- smusamashah
We need different kind of frameworks now. The ones that make agent's coding easier and more robust etc. Human ergonomics will be given secondary to no consideration on those frameworks.
- LelouBil
Even though I'm not a web developer I resonate with this a lot, but in the more generic way of "Does understanding the code even matter anymore ?". And it makes me kind of sad.
I just graduated (and was very lucky to get a junior job), and I'm someone that likes to dig deep when I'm having issues with a software. I care about correctness, I prefer to use strongly typed languages, I never used Haskell professionally, but I do all the advent of code with it. I like reading precise documentation.
But yesterday, my father showed me an app he made using Mistral's Vibe and android studio. He's in IT support, he knows computer science even though he never learned Kotlin or anything, but he was able to "make" an app, and he was excited, and I was happy for him as well, but only happy because he was happy basically.
I used this opportunity to ask him lots of questions about how he approached it, does he care that his only source for "how the code works" is the AI's own explanations. And basically we ended up at "if it's not critical" (it was just a launcher app for his phone) "it's fine".
But then, even though I myself never "vibe coded" an app or anything, I feel like I am always underestimating what AI can do now with all of the projects popping up. It seems almost magical, because I have no idea of the process behind it.
And it makes me think about when (not if) we'll just stop reviewing the AI code collectively, like 90% people stopped verifying compiler outputs except in very spe […]
- nostrebored
There has never been a better time to write frameworks that constrain how things have been done.
Almost all of our work is on our framework internally. The latency, guarantees, build time errors, and feedback that can enable vibe coding individual implementations.
I find myself constantly wishing for more framework code; I wish we had built our original framework in something that threw angrily when we abused it more.
I wish our type system were more expressive, I wish our threading story were better, I wish I wish I wish.
It’s never been easier to rework the whole thing, and I still am happiest when our framework is artisanal.