Learn Babel, Reactfire and Script-kit

How often do you avoid scripting something because it takes too much effort?\n\nScript Kit makes it easy to create and run scripts that solve your daily problems. Create a new script from the prompt then your script opens in the editor of your choice. Write a few lines of JavaScript. Then run the script from the prompt.\n\nSimply put, Script Kit helps you script away the friction of your day.

script-kit

Create, read, update, delete. Four actions that every developer becomes intimately familiar with over their career. Script Kit aims to make this process as pleasant as possible using a `db` helper and what better way to show it off than a Todos app?

You will also learn how to create and switch between tabs through Script Kit's `onTab` and `setTab` methods. 

[Install todos](https://scriptkit.com/api/new?name=todos&url=https://gist.githubusercontent.com/johnlindquist/3bdc967ffbd2f6d72491d07bf720f7e2/raw/a37b0058b502d6ba4bebd7a31a30be8789f5a146/todos.js")

```js
// Name: Todos

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

let { todos, write } = await db({ todos: [] })

onTab("Todos", async () => {
  while (true) {
    let todo = await arg("Toggle todo:", todos)
    let t = _.find(todos, todo)
    t.tag = t.tag === "open" ? "done" : "open"
    await write()
  }
})

onTab("New", async () => {
  let name = await arg("New todo:")
  todos.push({ name, id: uuid(), tag: "open" })
  await write()
  setTab("Todos")
})

onTab("Remove", async () => {
  let todo = await arg("Remove todo:", todos)
  _.remove(todos, todo)
  await write()
  setTab("Todos")
})
```


Build a Multi-Tab Todos App in Script Kit

When you want to collect news sources, airline ticket prices, or any events from sites that don't offer APIs, you can use scrapers to grab elements from off the page. 

Script Kit includes a `scrapeSelector()` helper that takes the URL you want to scrape and the selector you want from the page. Using the `// Schedule` metadata, you can also have this script run in the background on a Chron schedule and collect the data for you.


[Install scrape-tech-news](https://scriptkit.com/api/new?name=scrape-tech-news&url=https://gist.githubusercontent.com/johnlindquist/acd397a2ed487ef2a06c00d2951bed63/raw/3942107d2c92abc2c0317d15b0b3d025c5643ef0/scrape-tech-news.js")

```js
// Name: Scrape Tech News
// Schedule: 0 11 * * *

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

let h3s = await scrapeSelector(
  "https://news.google.com/topics/CAAqJggKIiBDQkFTRWdvSUwyMHZNRGRqTVhZU0FtVnVHZ0pWVXlnQVAB?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen",
  "h3"
)

let filePath = home("tech.md")
await ensureFile(filePath)
let contents =
  `

## ${new Date()}

` + h3s.map(h3 => `### ${h3}`).join("\n")
await appendFile(filePath, contents)
```

Scrape a Website on a Schedule with Script Kit

We put a lot of work into browsing the internet every day, it would be a pity to lose it all by closing all of our tabs. 

Script Kit can collect all of the tabs you currently have open in Chrome using its `getTabs` method and store them anywhere you want. 

This particular script converts the tabs to markdown links and stores them in a text file on your file system, but you could convert and store them using any approach you can think of.


[Install save-tabs](https://scriptkit.com/api/new?name=save-tabs&url=https://gist.githubusercontent.com/johnlindquist/4713a161a9ec48932b05436ba6a1a123/raw/33f753586d1a158dfb69d07f29850b6013d59f8b/save-tabs.js")

```js
// Name: Save Tabs

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

let tabs = await getTabs()

let tabsMd = tabs
  .map(tab => `* [${tab.title || tab.url}](${tab.url})`)
  .join("\n")

let notes = await editor(tabsMd)

let filePath = home("tab-notes.md")
await ensureFile(filePath)
await appendFile(filePath, notes)

edit(filePath)
```


Save Chrome Tabs in a Markdown File and Take Notes with Script Kit

Sometimes you just want to select and modify some text you have written somewhere on your system. To help you with this, Script Kit provides a `getSelectedText` and `setSelectedText`. Between these two helpers, your script and use and/or modify the text however you want. 

Applying an npm tool like `title-case` can help when you're not entirely sure when certain words need to be capitalized. In fact, I used the title case script on the title of this lesson!

[Install title-case](https://scriptkit.com/api/new?name=title-case&url=https://gist.githubusercontent.com/johnlindquist/0f8323d6aa599cfd62034351f9d38e8c/raw/625d0afd57ccbf8bf64c62bd135474cecf98c58b/title-case.js")

```js
// Name: Title Case

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

let { titleCase } = await npm("title-case")

let selectedText = await getSelectedText()
let titleText = titleCase(selectedText)

await setSelectedText(titleText)

// This Is the Title of My Next Blog Post
```


Apply Title Case to Text Anywhere Using Script Kit

Developers often keep their dev projects in a specific directory like "dev", "projects", or something similar. Script Kit allows you quickly read all the files of any directory then display them in a list so you can open them in your editor.


[Install open-project](https://scriptkit.com/api/new?name=open-project&url=https://gist.githubusercontent.com/johnlindquist/91cf994e450ecd5d45bce9aef9b345a1/raw/880be2d827b9602afe59d4e230e6753288f5bbb8/open-project.js")

```js
// Name: Open Project

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

let dirs = await readdir(home("dev"))

let selectedDir = await arg(
  "Open Project:",
  dirs.map(dir => ({
    name: dir,
    description: home("dev", dir),
    value: home("dev", dir),
  }))
)

edit(selectedDir)
```

List and Launch Dev Projects with Script Kit

We all have various tasks we need to accomplish with images. Whether it's resizing, optimizing, organizing, uploading, or anything else. Script Kit provides a `drop` component so you can simply drag and drop images into a script and process them in whatever way matches your workflow.


[Open drop-image in Script Kit](https://scriptkit.com/api/new?name=drop-image&url=https://gist.githubusercontent.com/johnlindquist/fe5b06f81cfea0d2dd94f743bc40ed15/raw/40a1b6ab271f7f664d7e54c4b779b056c6195b1c/drop-image.js")

```js
// Name: Drop Image

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

let files = await drop()
let imagePath = files[0].path

let Jimp = await npm("jimp")

let image = await Jimp.read(imagePath)
let newImagePath = path.resolve(
  path.dirname(imagePath),
  `new-${path.basename(imagePath)}`
)
await image
  .resize(parseInt(await arg("Width:"), 10), 100)
  .write(newImagePath)

```


Manipulate Images With Drag and Drop in Script Kit

Chrome allows developers to execute JavaScript using Apple Events. When you enable this feature, you can write scripts that can access and modify the page you're currently browsing. 

You can get the site's contents, update storage, or do any action you would typically do through an extension of the Chrome Dev Tools.

```jsx
let value = await applescript(`
tell application "Google Chrome" to tell window 1
	get execute active tab javascript "

${js}

"
end tell
`)
```

Control Chrome From Script Kit using Apple Events

Many developers use Chrome's Dev Tools as a playground for testing out data and JavaScript features. Script Kit enables you to launch Chrome Dev Tools instantly by simply using the `dev` method. Any data you pass into `dev` will show up in the console so you can inspect and play with the data in any way that you want.

[Install dev-tools-demo](https://scriptkit.com/api/new?name=dev-tools-demo&url=https://gist.githubusercontent.com/johnlindquist/6dcaf61e92819114c7478fefd24a71f8/raw/c2e69bfcff581f7929b881638627201b549d23f1/dev-tools-demo.js")

```js
// Name: Dev Tools Demo

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

let response = await get(
  `https://api.github.com/users/johnlindquist/repos`
)
dev(response.data)
```


Instantly Launch Chrome Dev Tools with Script Kit

This lesson walks through a script that can query a Hacker News API and display the information in Script Kit. 

Learn to do several things using Script Kit's global API methods, such as how to make and inspect data requests using `get` and `inspect`, how to display lists of data using `arg`, and how to display previews of the current selection.

[Install Hacker News Script](https://scriptkit.com/api/new?name=hackernews&url=https://gist.githubusercontent.com/johnlindquist/8728c8f56dd88951127810f0dea818d2/raw/8be4d28aa695f7842b610be258db7cd2e823a239/hackernews.js)

Write a Script with Script Kit to Browse Hacker News

React is one of the web’s most popular frameworks for building JavaScript applications. 

If you know what you’re doing, React can drastically simplify how you build, use, and maintain code.

Whether you’re a React newbie or you’re ready for advanced techniques, you can level-up with egghead. Explore our in-depth courses, lessons, and community resources to build more powerful applications and crack open your career.

react

We take the opengraph image we wrote in codesandbox and copy it into our serverless function. We use Rollup to compile the component into an IIFE (immediately invoked function expression) that can run in our headless browser environment and cover a wide set of rollup plugins that we need for compatibility. We end the lesson having successfully screenshot our opengraph react component from our Netlify Function

**Note**:  Due to Netlify changing their handling, the path in `fs.readFileSync` is affected. Update to:
```js
const script = fs.readFileSync(path.resolve(__dirname, "image.js"), "utf-8");
```

Compiling a React to an IIFE with Rollup to execute and render in a headless browser

Babel has support for the latest version of JavaScript through syntax transformers. These plugins allow you to use new syntax, right now without waiting for browser support.

babel

In this lesson, we'll configure webpack to use the Babel loader for our JavaScript files, allowing us to transpile our source files and generate a bundle for deploying our application.

Configure webpack to Load JavaScript Files through Babel with babel-loader

Converting all of our modern JavaScript into ES5 compatible syntax is a great way to use modern features while targeting older browsers. What happens when the browsers natively support these language features? Then it no longer makes sense to transform that code or to include polyfills that will go unused. In this lesson, we’ll add the `@babel/polyfill` package and configure `babel-preset-env`

Target specific browsers with babel-preset-env and the babel pollyfill

We transpile our JavaScript code so we can use modern language features, even if browser support isn't quite where we need it to be. This includes proposed features that aren't yet part of the official language specification. In this lesson, we'll see how we can support the proposed class property syntax for JavaScript with a Babel plugin.

Support Proposed JavaScript Features with Babel Plugins

One approach to building high performance applications with `webpack` is to take advantage of code-splitting to only load the needed JavaScript on initial load and asynchronously load additional JavaScript bundles when needed. In this lesson, we'll create add some code-splitting to our placeholder application and configure our project to support the dynamic `import()` syntax.

Asynchronously Load webpack Bundles through Code-splitting and React Suspense

In this lesson, we'll add React and ReactDOM to our project and create an entry point for the React application. We'll also configure Babel with the React preset so Babel can transpile our JSX into JavaScript that will run in a browser.

Configure babel for React with preset-react

In this lesson, we’ll install Babel and use it from the terminal to see how it can take JavaScript that uses modern language features and output JavaScript that will run in down-level browsers.

Transform Modern JavaScript Features with Babel

What is already a nice workflow using Gulp, Browserify, Watchify & Browsersync to enable auto rebuilds & live browser reloading can be further improved by adding Babelify. A simple wrapper around the popular transpiler Babel, Babelify can ‘transform’ source files as they pass through our stream to enable certain Javascript features not yet available in the Browser or Node. We end the lesson by looking at how to generate & extract sourcemaps using `exorcist`.

Gulp and Browserify - Adding Babel & Source Maps

Scripting can save you a _ton_ of time by automating your daily workflows.

But it's hard to justify the time investment of learning Bash to write your scripts.

Bash is the great barrier we all face when trying to script away our daily tasks. There are some common problems that we run into when dealing with it. Like what if we want to display images? Or share our script with other devs _cross platform_? 

You know what you want your script to do. You know you could figure it out if you had the time. But it's all just too darn much.

What if you could write your scripts in JavaScript, launch a GUI, and were actually *easy* to share with your team? **audible gasp**

Script Kit is the tool that’s been missing from your developer toolbox for so, so long. 🛠

![word-api.gif](https://res.cloudinary.com/dg3gyk0gu/image/upload/v1639684537/course-resources/script-kit-cook-book/word-api.gif)

**Download the new hotness here: [https://scriptkit.com](https://scriptkit.com/) 🔥**

We even use Script Kit internally at [egghead.io](http://egghead.io) to manage our lesson transcripts! With a single script, we query an API to list the transcripts, modify them as necessary, then post the changes.  

**This course was made to show you what Script Kit can do for you.** 

John Lindquist, the creator of Script Kit and co-founder of egghead.io, has put together this series of lessons to give a quick overview of the features of Script Kit to help you get oriented. 

We know you’ll be off and having a blast with your own scripting ideas in no time!

Script Kit Showcase for Optimizing Your Everyday Workflows

<p>Henry Zhu is currently a steward for Babel, and today he'll be discussing the management and lifestyle side of working on an open source project full-time.</p><p>The financial side to open source is interesting. Henry talks about where he gets his money and how he can be financially independent while still working on open source full time. Most of the money comes from donations through Open Collective and Patreon. A lot of the donations come from users, but corporations do donate as well. Henry also discusses the stability of it, and how the NPR model of asking for donations can lead to uncertainty about the next month.</p><p>Henry says he's enjoying the management and marketing side of being a steward about as much as he enjoys coding. It's a side that people don't often think about with open source. This side of it includes a lot of marketing and interacting with the greater community, as well as the other maintainers and contributors to babel.</p><p>How does Henry handle all this responsibility when there is no one above him telling him when to take a break, or when to go on vacation? Henry and Joel talk about having a positive "selfishness", and taking care of yourself so that the project can prosper. If you want to be doing it for years you have to make sure that you don't burn out.</p><hr /><h3>Transcript</h3><p><a href="https://egghead.simplecast.com/episodes/henry-zhu/transcript">"Henry Zhu, Maintainer of Babel" Transcript</a></p><h3>Resources:</h3><ul><li><a href="https://babeljs.io/">Babel</a></li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Power-Habit-What-Life-Business/dp/081298160X">The Power of Habit</a></li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/You-Are-What-Love-Spiritual/dp/158743380X">You Are What You Love</a></li><li><a href="https://www.tinyhabits.com/">Tiny Habits</a></li><li><a href="https://kaidavis.com/articles/">Kai Davis</a></li></ul><h3>Henry Zhu:</h3><ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/left_pad?lang=en">Twitter</a></li><li><a href="https://www.henryzoo.com/">Website</a></li><li><a href="https://github.com/hzoo">Github</a></li><li><a href="https://www.patreon.com/henryzhu">Patreon</a></li><li><a href="https://opencollective.com/babel#">Open Collective</a></li></ul><h3>Joel Hooks:</h3><ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/jhooks">Twitter</a></li><li><a href="https://joelhooks.com/">Website</a></li></ul>


Today, Henry Zhu, the lead maintainer of Babel, discusses what it's like to work on a large and important open source project. Henry gets into how Babel receives funding, how corporations are involved in open source, stewardship of an open source project, mental and physical health, and not compromising his values.  

Henry Zhu, Maintainer of Babel

In this lesson, you'll learn how to enhance the accuracy of components generated by Cursor Composer by aligning your project's package.json with Cursor's rules. We'll guide you through extracting the list of installed packages from your package.json and incorporating them into your .cursorrules file, along with brief descriptions of their functionalities. By providing Cursor with this contextual information, you'll enable it to generate components that are more precise and functional on the first attempt. The lesson includes demonstrations of component generation both with and without these enhancements, highlighting the improvements in accuracy and efficiency.

Boost Cursor Composer Accuracy: Integrating package.json with Cursor Rules

Speed up your bug-fixing process dramatically with Cursors Composer. Take a warning from your logs, search for relevant terms, then seamlessly import both the warning and search results into Composer. Add documentation and apply fixes to all search results in one go. This streamlined workflow resolves multiple issues rapidly, saving valuable development time.

Batch Fix Every File in Search Results with Cursor's Composer

 We map over the initial set of results then use `Promise.all` to efficiently fetch the details of each pokemon rendered in the table. This allows us to add more columns to our pokemon table.

Fetch and display row details with Promise.all in Tanstack Table

map over the initial set of results then use `Promise.all` to efficiently fetch the details of each pokemon rendered in the tanstack table

Create a custom hook to fetch remote data by passing a promise to the React 19 `use` hook. Then render this data in Tanstack Table by memoizing the results and passing them to `useReactTable`.

Render remote data in a Tanstack Table with React 19's use hook and a promise

Create a custom hook using React 19’s use to fetch data with a promise. Render it in a Tanstack Table by memoizing and using useReactTable.

You know when you're deep in the code trenches and need someone to challenge your assumptions? That's exactly what this is about.

Instead of waiting for someone to poke holes in your master plan, you can paste that strategy straight into AI Studio and let it pressure test your ideas. We're talking about using this tool to validate everything from your feature proposals to your ambitious refactoring strategies.

The real magic happens when you hit that microphone button. Now you're in a real-time verbal sparring match. It's like rubber duck debugging but the duck actually pushes back and makes you defend every architectural decision you've made.

Here's the workflow:
1. Drop your master plan into the system instructions
2. Tell the AI to challenge every assumption
3. Hit that mic and defend your choices like you mean it
4. Watch your plan either emerge stronger or get rightfully dismantled

This approach is perfect when you're:
- Stuck in your own head with a complex problem
- Need to validate if your approach holds water
- Want to catch edge cases before they catch you
- Looking for opportunities you might have missed because you're too close to the code

It's like having a senior dev on call 24/7, ready to challenge your ideas and push you to think deeper about your solutions.

Now go forth and get your ideas challenged. Your projects will thank you for it.


An Uncomfortable and Challenging Conversation with AI Studio

In this lesson, you'll learn how to effectively brainstorm your project ideas before working with AI agents. We'll cover:

1. The importance of having a clear plan before starting work with AI agents
2. Using traditional brainstorming techniques to gather your thoughts
3. Leveraging video recording to capture your brainstorming session
4. How to review and analyze websites for inspiration
5. Documenting likes, dislikes, and potential features for your project
6. Using AI tools (like AI Studio) to organize and process your recorded brainstorming session

The lesson emphasizes a modern approach to brainstorming that combines traditional techniques with video recording, making it easier to later process your ideas through AI tools. This method helps ensure that no ideas are lost and that your thoughts can be effectively organized by AI for future reference.

How to Brainstorm Your Project Features to Prepare for AI Agents

fast-check allows us to create composite generators that suit our testing needs. We'll generate two numbers to create a point simulating an X and Y and assert that the distance should always be greater than or equal to 0.

Generate composite objects with fast-check fc.record

Just using fast-check by itself can make you tests verbose and tough to read. Lucky for us there are many integrations with fast-check such as the `@fast-check/jest` package that will help remove some boilerplate from our test.

Tidy up your test with @fast-check/jest

Many people share .cursorrules files, but trying to craft your own from scratch is a huge pain. Instead, this lesson shows you how to grab ALL community-created .cursorrules files to build a custom rule set for your projects. We'll use Gitingest and Google AI Studio to gather these examples and generate an awesome starting point customized to your specific project.

Generate Custom .cursorrules for Your Project Based on Community Examples

The GitHub CLI allows you to search issues and filter on different criteria like amount of comments. This allows you to search for real-world situations and pains/solutions people have using different technology. 

With the GitHub CLI in hand we'll drop 100s of issues as context in Googles AI Studio and have Gemini determine the 10 most frequently asked questions. This will give us a sense of how people use a library and where people get hung up.