How we rebuilt Next.js with AI in a week

_{*This post was updated at 12:35 PM PT to correct a typo in the build time benchmarks.}

Last week, an engineer and an AI model rebuilt the most popular front-end framework from scratch. The result, Vinext (pronounced “vee-next”) is a direct replacement for Next.js that is built on top of it Vitewhich is deployed to Cloudflare Workers with a single command. In early benchmarks, production applications are built up to four times faster and client bundles are up to 57% smaller. And we already have customers using it in production.

The whole thing cost about $1,100 in tokens.

Next.js is the most popular React framework. Millions of developers use it. It powers a large portion of the production site, and for good reason. The developer experience is top notch.

But Next.js has a deployment problem when used in the broader serverless ecosystem. The tools are completely bespoke: Next.js has invested heavily in Turbopack, but if you want to deploy it…