SimonWillison.net is the long-running blog of Simon Willison, a software engineer, open-source creator, and co-author of the original Django framework. He writes about Python, Django, Datasette, AI tooling, prompt engineering, search, databases, APIs, data journalism, and practical software architecture. The blog includes detailed notes from experiments, conference talks, and real projects. Readers will find clear explanations of topics such as LLM workflows, SQL patterns, data publishing, scraping, deployment, caching, and modern developer tooling. Simon also publishes frequent micro-posts and TIL entries that document small discoveries and tricks from day-to-day engineering work. The tone is practical and research oriented, making the site a valuable resource for anyone interested in serious engineering and open data.
260 articles from this blog
An interactive deconstruction of the 1985 Turbo Pascal 3.02A binary, using AI to decompile and annotate the classic compiler's assembly code.
Kimi.ai congratulates Cursor AI on Composer 2 launch, built on the Kimi-k2.5 model via a commercial partnership.
Analysis of OpenAI's acquisition of Astral, the company behind popular Python tools uv, ruff, and ty, and its implications for the ecosystem.
Explores using Apple's 'LLM in a Flash' research to run a massive 397B parameter AI model locally on a MacBook by streaming weights from SSD.
Report on a prompt injection attack that allowed Snowflake's Cortex AI agent to escape its sandbox and execute malware.
OpenAI introduces GPT-5.4 mini and nano models, detailing their performance, pricing, and a cost example for image description.
A Django core developer warns against over-reliance on LLMs in open-source contributions, emphasizing the need for human understanding.
Mistral AI releases Mistral Small 4, a new 119B parameter open model combining reasoning, multimodal, and coding capabilities.
OpenAI Codex now supports subagents and custom agents for AI-assisted coding, similar to features in Claude Code and other platforms.
Explains how the MacBook Neo's camera indicator light runs in a secure chip enclave, preventing kernel-level exploits from disabling it.
A workshop handout on using AI coding agents like Claude Code and OpenAI Codex for data analysis, visualization, and cleaning tasks.
Jazzband sunset due to AI-generated spam overwhelming open-source project maintenance and GitHub's response.
A speaker shares insights from a fireside chat on AI coding agents, stages of AI adoption, and trusting AI output in software development.
Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.6 and Sonnet 4.6 models now offer 1M context at standard pricing, contrasting with competitors' long-context premiums.
A developer builds custom accounting software to handle complex multi-currency, tax, and data ingestion needs, finding it superior to off-the-shelf solutions.
Shopify CEO uses AI coding agent to achieve 53% faster parse+render and 61% fewer allocations in the Liquid template engine.
Satirical article about a fictional AI service that recreates open source projects to bypass licensing obligations.
Explores the transformative impact of AI on software development, featuring insights from industry experts on the future of coding.
AI-assisted coding reveals a philosophical divide between developers who prioritize craft and those focused on results.
Creating animated visualizations of sorting algorithms using AI tools, including Python's Timsort.
