Simon Willison
@simonwillison.net
Independent AI researcher, creator of datasette.io and llm.datasette.io, building open source tools for data journalism, writing about a lot of stuff at https://simonwillison.net/
Bay Area musician LaRussell has been doing a series of collaborations with local schools turning around full music videos and they're pretty amazing, here's the latest with San Leandro High School www.tiktok.com/@larussellgc...
SAN LEANDRO IS FROM THE BAY!!!! WE SHOT THIS VIDEO THIS MORNING!!! I TOLD THE KIDS I WOULD HAVE IT EDITED AND OUT BY TIME SCHOOL GETS OUT!!! LET'S GOOOO!!!!
TikTok video by LaRussell
www.tiktok.com
January 17, 2026 at 10:38 PM
Bay Area musician LaRussell has been doing a series of collaborations with local schools turning around full music videos and they're pretty amazing, here's the latest with San Leandro High School www.tiktok.com/@larussellgc...
Reposted by Simon Willison
New interview: @simonwillison.net shares his technical blogging experiences and advice writethatblog.substack.com/p/simon-will...
January 15, 2026 at 2:12 PM
New interview: @simonwillison.net shares his technical blogging experiences and advice writethatblog.substack.com/p/simon-will...
Reposted by Simon Willison
Honestly this works for everything
“I want to trap hungry 19c ghosts in jars to help us with historical research” ✅
“Please read our holiday card; we got a hungry ghost to write it this year” ❌
“I want to trap hungry 19c ghosts in jars to help us with historical research” ✅
“Please read our holiday card; we got a hungry ghost to write it this year” ❌
If you can substitute "hungry ghost trapped in a jar" for "AI" in a sentence it's probably a valid use case for LLMs. Take "I have a bunch of hungry ghosts in jars, they mainly write SQL queries for me". Sure. Reasonable use case.
"My girlfriend is a hungry ghost I trapped in a jar"? No. Deranged.
"My girlfriend is a hungry ghost I trapped in a jar"? No. Deranged.
January 12, 2026 at 1:11 PM
Honestly this works for everything
“I want to trap hungry 19c ghosts in jars to help us with historical research” ✅
“Please read our holiday card; we got a hungry ghost to write it this year” ❌
“I want to trap hungry 19c ghosts in jars to help us with historical research” ✅
“Please read our holiday card; we got a hungry ghost to write it this year” ❌
Wrote up my first impressions of Claude Cowork, Anthropic's new general purpose agent released today for $100+/month subscribers as part of their macOS desktop app simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/12/...
First impressions of Claude Cowork, Anthropic’s general agent
New from Anthropic today is Claude Cowork, a “research preview” that they describe as “Claude Code for the rest of your work”. It’s currently available only to Max subscribers ($100 …
simonwillison.net
January 12, 2026 at 9:50 PM
Wrote up my first impressions of Claude Cowork, Anthropic's new general purpose agent released today for $100+/month subscribers as part of their macOS desktop app simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/12/...
Reposted by Simon Willison
Inspired by @simonwillison.net work on gisthost I created snippethost - rendering HTML directly from GitLab Snippets in the browser!
marco.ninja/blog/posts/2...
marco.ninja/blog/posts/2...
Introducing snippethost.gitlab.io | marco.ninja
It is no secret that I’m no big fan of GitHub and it’s dominance in the VCS-ecosystem.
So in an effort of leveling the playing field I’m taking it onto myself to build more cool things for and with my...
marco.ninja
January 11, 2026 at 7:38 PM
Inspired by @simonwillison.net work on gisthost I created snippethost - rendering HTML directly from GitLab Snippets in the browser!
marco.ninja/blog/posts/2...
marco.ninja/blog/posts/2...
I will never understand the decision making process that leads to a company throwing away their archives like this, like how far gone from understanding anything about how the internet works do you have to be in order to make a decision like this?
What, you think old pages are /expensive/?
What, you think old pages are /expensive/?
Welp, looks like Uproxx finally nuked their archives. 16 years of my work, now invisible for someone who wanted to find it. From the bottom of my heart, fuck these guys forever.
January 10, 2026 at 6:14 PM
I will never understand the decision making process that leads to a company throwing away their archives like this, like how far gone from understanding anything about how the internet works do you have to be in order to make a decision like this?
What, you think old pages are /expensive/?
What, you think old pages are /expensive/?
Reposted by Simon Willison
Thanks @simonwillison.net, always enjoy your content. I also really like HTML tools. Thank you for all the resources!
Was inspired to share them:
www.briangershon.com/blog/make-to...
Was inspired to share them:
www.briangershon.com/blog/make-to...
Make the Tool You Wish Existed (with Your LLM) | Brian Gershon
Build custom HTML tools that fit your exact workflow using LLMs. No extensive programming knowledge required. Turn workflow problems into practical tools in hours.
www.briangershon.com
January 9, 2026 at 10:53 PM
Thanks @simonwillison.net, always enjoy your content. I also really like HTML tools. Thank you for all the resources!
Was inspired to share them:
www.briangershon.com/blog/make-to...
Was inspired to share them:
www.briangershon.com/blog/make-to...
Sprites.dev by @fly.io is a very cool new thing: it solves two of my pet problems at once, developer sandbox environments for coding agents and a JSON API for executing untrusted code
I wrote more here: simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/9/s...
I wrote more here: simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/9/s...
Fly’s new Sprites.dev addresses both developer sandboxes and API sandboxes at the same time
New from Fly.io today: Sprites.dev. Here’s their blog post and YouTube demo. It’s an interesting new product that’s quite difficult to explain—Fly call it “Stateful sandbox environments with checkpoin...
simonwillison.net
January 10, 2026 at 12:32 AM
Sprites.dev by @fly.io is a very cool new thing: it solves two of my pet problems at once, developer sandbox environments for coding agents and a JSON API for executing untrusted code
I wrote more here: simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/9/s...
I wrote more here: simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/9/s...
Sprites.dev by @fly.io is a very cool new thing: it solves two of my pet problems at once, developer sandbox environments for coding agents and a JSON API for executing untrusted code
I wrote more here: simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/9/s...
I wrote more here: simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/9/s...
Fly’s new Sprites.dev addresses both developer sandboxes and API sandboxes at the same time
New from Fly.io today: Sprites.dev. Here’s their blog post and YouTube demo. It’s an interesting new product that’s quite difficult to explain—Fly call it “Stateful sandbox environments with checkpoin...
simonwillison.net
January 10, 2026 at 12:29 AM
Sprites.dev by @fly.io is a very cool new thing: it solves two of my pet problems at once, developer sandbox environments for coding agents and a JSON API for executing untrusted code
I wrote more here: simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/9/s...
I wrote more here: simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/9/s...
An important tip to improve your 2026
January 9, 2026 at 1:58 AM
An important tip to improve your 2026
Reposted by Simon Willison
It's started! The 2026 #kakapo breeding season is under way, with the first nest found on Whenua Hou today. Pearl is on two eggs. #conservation #parrots #birds
January 8, 2026 at 2:30 AM
It's started! The 2026 #kakapo breeding season is under way, with the first nest found on Whenua Hou today. Pearl is on two eggs. #conservation #parrots #birds
I joined the Oxide and Friends annual predictions podcast episode this week - here are my 1, 3 and 6 year predictions for AI and LLMs (and Kākāpō parrots) simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/8/l...
January 8, 2026 at 7:45 PM
I joined the Oxide and Friends annual predictions podcast episode this week - here are my 1, 3 and 6 year predictions for AI and LLMs (and Kākāpō parrots) simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/8/l...
Reposted by Simon Willison
Software engineers are losing their minds over Claude Code and agents.
Campaigns shouldn’t shrug. The story isn't “AI can code”, it's AI can do knowledge work, and campaigns are mostly knowledge work.
matthodges.com/posts/2026-0...
Campaigns shouldn’t shrug. The story isn't “AI can code”, it's AI can do knowledge work, and campaigns are mostly knowledge work.
matthodges.com/posts/2026-0...
Campaigns Are Knowledge Workers and the Tools Just Caught Up
Agentic AI can change campaign operations. The organizations that outlast November need to lead.
matthodges.com
January 7, 2026 at 9:10 PM
Software engineers are losing their minds over Claude Code and agents.
Campaigns shouldn’t shrug. The story isn't “AI can code”, it's AI can do knowledge work, and campaigns are mostly knowledge work.
matthodges.com/posts/2026-0...
Campaigns shouldn’t shrug. The story isn't “AI can code”, it's AI can do knowledge work, and campaigns are mostly knowledge work.
matthodges.com/posts/2026-0...
The dog is mysteriously wet
January 7, 2026 at 5:23 PM
The dog is mysteriously wet
Reposted by Simon Willison
I wrote a photo essay with 20+ of my favourite tech museums in the world, and tried to figure out what makes a great museum in the process.
I am very curious what tech museums you like – and why!
aresluna.org/fav-tech-mus...
I am very curious what tech museums you like – and why!
aresluna.org/fav-tech-mus...
Fav tech museums
A photo essay of 20-something best tech museums I’ve been to
aresluna.org
January 5, 2026 at 5:25 PM
I wrote a photo essay with 20+ of my favourite tech museums in the world, and tried to figure out what makes a great museum in the process.
I am very curious what tech museums you like – and why!
aresluna.org/fav-tech-mus...
I am very curious what tech museums you like – and why!
aresluna.org/fav-tech-mus...
Reposted by Simon Willison
The first Monday of the new year means... predictions! Thrilled to announce that @simonwillison.net will again be joining @ahl.bsky.social and me for 1- 3- and 6-year predictions. Bring your own predictions and join us today at a special time: 4p Pacific!
discord.gg/QrcKGTTPrF?e...
discord.gg/QrcKGTTPrF?e...
Join the Oxide Computer Company & Friends Discord Server!
The Oxide Computer Company and friends; home of the Oxide and Friends podcast. | 4687 members
discord.gg
January 5, 2026 at 4:48 PM
The first Monday of the new year means... predictions! Thrilled to announce that @simonwillison.net will again be joining @ahl.bsky.social and me for 1- 3- and 6-year predictions. Bring your own predictions and join us today at a special time: 4p Pacific!
discord.gg/QrcKGTTPrF?e...
discord.gg/QrcKGTTPrF?e...
The underlying data for this is available as CSV files with open CORS headers, so I had some fun loading it into Datasette Lite and querying it with WebAssembly SQLite simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/2/m...
January 2, 2026 at 8:30 PM
The underlying data for this is available as CSV files with open CORS headers, so I had some fun loading it into Datasette Lite and querying it with WebAssembly SQLite simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/2/m...
Reposted by Simon Willison
On a New Years Day dumpling crawl around Fremont with @simonwillison.net for his birthday
January 1, 2026 at 11:02 PM
On a New Years Day dumpling crawl around Fremont with @simonwillison.net for his birthday
I forked the wonderful gistpreview.github.io to create gisthost.github.io - here's what I changed in my fork: simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/1/g...
Introducing gisthost.github.io
I am a huge fan of gistpreview.github.io, the site by Leon Huang that lets you append ?GIST_id to see a browser-rendered version of an HTML page that you have saved …
simonwillison.net
January 1, 2026 at 10:14 PM
I forked the wonderful gistpreview.github.io to create gisthost.github.io - here's what I changed in my fork: simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/1/g...
Made lemon pigs! 🍋 🐷
January 1, 2026 at 5:35 AM
Made lemon pigs! 🍋 🐷
Here's my enormous round-up of everything we learned about LLMs in 2025 - the third in my annual series of reviews of the past twelve months
simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/31/...
This year it's divided into 26 sections! This is the table of contents:
simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/31/...
This year it's divided into 26 sections! This is the table of contents:
December 31, 2025 at 11:54 PM
Here's my enormous round-up of everything we learned about LLMs in 2025 - the third in my annual series of reviews of the past twelve months
simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/31/...
This year it's divided into 26 sections! This is the table of contents:
simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/31/...
This year it's divided into 26 sections! This is the table of contents:
Looks like OpenAI "Codex cloud" was quietly rebranded to "Codex web" at some point in the last ~48 hours
I use them via native apps so I wanted Anthropic to rebrand "Claude Code on the web" to "Claude Code Cloud", didn't expect OpenAI to go the other direction! simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/31/...
I use them via native apps so I wanted Anthropic to rebrand "Claude Code on the web" to "Claude Code Cloud", didn't expect OpenAI to go the other direction! simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/31/...
Codex cloud is now called Codex web
It looks like OpenAI's Codex cloud (the cloud version of their Codex coding agent) was quietly rebranded to Codex web at some point in the last few days. Here's a …
simonwillison.net
December 31, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Looks like OpenAI "Codex cloud" was quietly rebranded to "Codex web" at some point in the last ~48 hours
I use them via native apps so I wanted Anthropic to rebrand "Claude Code on the web" to "Claude Code Cloud", didn't expect OpenAI to go the other direction! simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/31/...
I use them via native apps so I wanted Anthropic to rebrand "Claude Code on the web" to "Claude Code Cloud", didn't expect OpenAI to go the other direction! simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/31/...
Reposted by Simon Willison
This is true and I was the only one on set excited about it (and playing the song on my phone to blank stares)
Just watched the new Knives Out and I think it's really important you know that the scene in the Seminary's Gym is filmed in the same place Rick Astley filmed the music video for Never Gonna Give You Up.
I saw the window tracery and immediately made my friends pause the film so I could tell them.
I saw the window tracery and immediately made my friends pause the film so I could tell them.
December 30, 2025 at 4:21 AM
This is true and I was the only one on set excited about it (and playing the song on my phone to blank stares)
This thread of four tweets offers a neat mental model for working with coding agents
In essence a language model changes you from a programmer who writes lines of code, to a programmer that manages the context the model has access to, prunes irrelevant things, adds useful material to context, and writes detailed specifications. If that doesn't sound fun to you, you won't enjoy it.
December 30, 2025 at 1:17 AM
This thread of four tweets offers a neat mental model for working with coding agents
If like me you have a mental model that SQLite doesn't accept outside contributions you should update it, I just got called out by D. Richard Hipp for spreading that misinformation in a comment on Hacker News simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/29/...
Copyright Release for Contributions To SQLite
D. Richard Hipp called me out for spreading misinformation on Hacker News that SQLite refuses outside contributions: No, Simon, we don't "refuse". We are just very selective and there is …
simonwillison.net
December 29, 2025 at 8:08 PM
If like me you have a mental model that SQLite doesn't accept outside contributions you should update it, I just got called out by D. Richard Hipp for spreading that misinformation in a comment on Hacker News simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/29/...