Is it just me, or are today's LLMs less likely to default to building everything in React than they were last year?
I used to have to say "don't use React" in almost all of my frontend web dev prompts, I've not had to do that for most of the models in quite a while now
Many users welcome LLMs becoming less likely to default to React in frontend prompts because the shift toward simpler options like static HTML feels like welcome maturity and better context awareness.
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Not sure if that's a change in default preferences from the models or just that I'm often prompting inside existing projects and the models know full well not to introduce React to a project that isn't using it already
I tried in a fresh project just now and got vanilla HTML+JS
Is it just me, or are today's LLMs less likely to default to building everything in React than they were last year?
I used to have to say "don't use React" in almost all of my frontend web dev prompts, I've not had to do that for most of the models in quite a while now
@simonw Yeah I've noticed that too. Feels like they're finally branching out. Still have to remind mine not to reach for Python every single time though.
@simonw Might be also the size of your projects? I feel LLMs always would default to plain HTML for small projects, I don't think I ever saw unwanted React. It's possible that I just always ask for specific framework when starting a large-ish project.
@simonw Why don’t you want the models to generate React components, out of interest?
@simonw post-training started rewarding least-code-that-ships. react was always the most boilerplate, so it quietly lost the default.
@simonw yeah, noticed this too. less fighting the prompt lately
@simonw this is a lowkey fascinating shift. wonder if its training data catching up or RLHF finally nerfing the react worship
@simonw Can the default preferences drift without a model update, if yes, is that via system prompt changes?
@simonw I wonder why this happens in your opinion.
@simonw If you're not even specifying what language you want to use in your prompts then you're not evendoing software development at all, you're doing something more akin to art or what is in the animal kingdom called "play". haha.
@simonw Mine just document.getElements everything. But "artifacts" are indeed react-laden.
@simonw i think the labs are doing great work with simple html, back to basics i guess
@simonw same here. the default seems to be moving from “generate a react app” to “pick the smallest thing that works,” which is a very welcome kind of maturity
@simonw been getting go recommendations now for some services and apis
@simonw real. the models are finally catching up to the fact that you don't need a build step for every simple script.
the shift toward native web features in 2026 is making vanilla js a genuinely viable default again.
@simonw Could it be the memory? Remembering you don’t like React across projects
@simonw models finally learned that static html is not a hate crime. the real upgrade isn’t taste, it’s context: if the task smells like a tiny tool, stop reaching for a framework-shaped crane.