Alchemy: IaC Without Terraform

Front-End Fire

The latest craze for MCP this week? Instead of multiple MCP servers with different tools, use an MCP server that accepts programming code as tool inputs - a single “ubertool” if you will. AI agents like Claude Code are pretty good at writing code, but letting the agent write and execute code to invoke API functions instead of using a defined MCP server doesn’t seem like the most efficient use of LLM tokens, but it's another approach to consider.

In infrastructure news, there’s a library called Alchemy that lets devs write their Infrastructure as Code in pure TypeScript. No Terraform files, no dependencies, just async functions, stored in plain JSON files, that runs anywhere JS can run. For web devs, the future of IaC has arrived.

Next.js has made their last big release before v16 in the form of 15.5. Highlights of this minor release include: production turbopack builds, stable support for the Node.js runtime in middleware, fully typed routes, and deprecation warnings in preparation for Next.js 16.

Timestamps:

• 00:57 - Dangers of the “ubertool”
• 09:54 - Alchemy Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
• 15:27 - Next.js 15.5
• 24:57 - How CodeRabbit AI got hacked
• 27:48 - </li><li>32:37 - Claudia</li><li>41:31 - hidden=until-found</li><li>45:26 - What’s making us happy</li></ul><p>Links:</p><ul><li>Paige - <a href='https://alchemy.run/'>Alchemy Infrastructure as Code (IaC)</a></li><li>Jack - <a href='https://lucumr.pocoo.org/2025/8/18/code-mcps/'>Dangers of the “ubertool”</a></li><li>TJ - <a href='https://nextjs.org/blog/next-15-5'>Next.js 15.5</a></li><li><a href='https://research.kudelskisecurity.com/2025/08/19/how-we-exploited-coderabbit-from-a-simple-pr-to-rce-and-write-access-on-1m-repositories/'>How CodeRabbit AI got hacked</a></li><li><a href='https://claudiacode.com/'>Claudia</a></li><li><a href='https://vercel.com/blog/a-proposal-for-inline-llm-instructions-in-html'><script type=&quot;text/llms.txt&quot;></a></li><li><a href='https://css-tricks.com/covering-hiddenuntil-found/'>hidden=until-found</a></li><li>Paige - <a href='https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62873378-the-art-thief'>The Art Thief book</a></li><li>Jack - <a href='https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13623632/'>Alien: Earth TV series</a></li><li>TJ - <a href='https://www.nytimes.com/games/pips'>Pips NYT game</a></li></ul><p>Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.</p><ul><li><a href='https://front-end-fire.com'>Front-end Fire website</a></li><li><a href='https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6vRUjYqDuoUsYsku86Lrsw'>Blue Collar Coder on YouTube</a></li><li><a href='https://discord.com/invite/ddMZFtTDa5'>Blue Collar Coder on Discord</a></li><li><a href='mailto:[email protected]'>Reach out via email</a></li><li><a href='https://twitter.com/front_end_fire'>Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire</a></li><li><a href='https://bsky.app/profile/front-end-fire.com'>Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com</a></li><li><a href='https://www.youtube.com/@Front-EndFirePodcast'>Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast</a></li></ul>