• Dev List
  • Posts
  • This Week in The Coding World - GPT 4.6 Codex, Zencoder Zen Agents, and More!

This Week in The Coding World - GPT 4.6 Codex, Zencoder Zen Agents, and More!

Author

Dev List
August 04, 2025

In partnership with

Hey there, here are the big updates in the coding world within the last week!

Want to get the most out of ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a superpower if you know how to use it correctly.

Discover how HubSpot's guide to AI can elevate both your productivity and creativity to get more things done.

Learn to automate tasks, enhance decision-making, and foster innovation with the power of AI.

1. 🚀 AI & Developer Tools

● OpenAI & the Rise of Third-Gen Coding Agents

The industry is reaching critical momentum in AI development assistants. While GitHub Copilot and similar tools kicked things off with code-completion, that’s old news. Now the real shift is toward third-gen coding agents—like Zencoder’s Zen Agents, Copilot’s agentic DevOps, and Claude 4—that integrate across your entire SDLC: backlog to CI/CD automation, bug fixing to deployment. Expect to revisit your toolkit every 6–8 weeks to catch step-function upgrades.

● GitHub Pro Enhancements

  • Copilot Chat (Enterprise Cloud) users with data residency now pay per “premium” request for greater predictability in usage and costs.

  • In the public changelog this week:

    • Copilot can now create, update, or push files, branches, and even PRs via Chat commands.

    • Copilot code review is shifting to copilot-instructions.md, simplifying integration with engineering workflow policies.

● .NET Tooling Gets AI Migration Help

A new GitHub Copilot app modernization preview helps .NET teams lift legacy apps to Azure, turning security scans and code transformations into a guided, AI-assisted experience.

● Responses API + Agents SDK Hits General Availability

OpenAI’s Responses API, initially launched in March, is now in broader access: web search, file search, computer use, and building your own multi-agent workflows (back-end meaning). Developers are starting to craft their own AI orchestrators and toolchains from scratch.

2. 🐍 Languages, Frameworks & Runtimes

● Node.js & Azure Adjust Support

  • The Azure SDK for JavaScript dropped support for Node.js 18.x as of July 10, pushing users to upgrade to 22.x or newer.

  • Node.js maintainers are looking to shorten LTS from 30 to 24 months and move from semiannual to annual major releases—stability over speed.

● Security Patch: July Node.js Release

Node.js rolled out its July 2025 security update v22.17.1 (codename “Jod”) on July 15—users should proactively update to stay protected.

3. 🔐 Security & Dev Trust

● Amazon Q Extension Hack Incident

Nearly 1 million devs use Amazon’s “Q Developer Extension” for VS Code. That plugin was hacked in version 1.84.0 and contained data-wiping code. A clean patch (v1.85) was released quickly—but trust has been shaken. Check your accounts and strip unknown file-based extensions.

● Developers Don't Trust AI—Here’s Why It Matters

Stack Overflow’s 2025 survey shows adoption at 84%, but 46% of devs say they actively distrust AI output (vs. 31% in 2024). Only 3.1% strongly trust results. Most devs use AI tools for learning, prototyping, or planning—not production-grade code.

💸 Developers Land Jobs 5X Faster With Pro

Debatably one of the most helpful companies of all time, Dev List has helped thousands of job seekers find their next role! Anyone wanting to speed up their job search can do so here.

Quick reminder of what you get at the Dev List pro level;

  • All top postings of the previous week

  • Access to all lists ever created

  • Brand new list emailed every week

  • Support for contacting leads

  • Data points on each listing

  • Hundreds of exclusive job postings every week

4. 📅 Events & Conferences

  • DjangoCon Africa is just around the corner (Arusha, Aug 11–15). Not to mention Q3 Python Fellow nominations are open until August 20 (PSF).

5. 📦 What’s New with Microsoft & IDEs

  • Visual Studio 2022 v17.10.17 dropped on July 8, including multiple bug fixes and security patches in the TFVC, .NET, and ASP.NET Core toolchains.

  • ⏱️ Microsoft confirms 50 million developers now actively use VS & VS Code each month—margin of error: zero.

  • Gemini 2.5 Pro is top ranked in AI dev tool metrics—1M token context window and highest WebDev Arena score. Great for native code + visual reasoning.

  • Google Opal—a no-code AI app builder that lets you chain LLMs with visual prompts and conditional logic (now in alpha). Can turn devs into citizen-app creators in hours.

🧩 TL;DR — What You Should Do This Week

  1. Try Copilot Chat’s new repo features (push, branch, merge)

  2. Patch Node.js & VS Code extensions immediately

  3. Explore building an AI agent prototype (multi-step logic)

  4. Validate AI outputs with unit tests/human review

  5. Move off Node 18.x; adopt annual releases

  6. Network at PyCon / DjangoCon; nominate community heroes

  7. Try Gemini 2.5 Pro or Opal builder for rapid toolcrafting

    📬 What’s Trending Now

Watch for:

  • Visual Studio 18 with full AI-first IDE redesign

  • GPT-4.6 Codex — pre-commit auto-review and semantic code understanding

  • More enterprise AI SOC reporting (Azure AI governance dashboards launching Q4)

Happy Coding!

— The Dev List Team!