iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 24/09/2026

Spring Boot 3.5 open source support ended June 30, 2026. If you're on 3.x, this upgrade is coming. I took a real Spring Boot 3.5 app to 4.1 live. No slides. The missing H2 console, Jackson 3, and JSpecify null safety. Every break fixed and explained. youtu.be/HiPkoGTeNJc

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 23/09/2026

Spec-driven dev tools feel like overkill for one person. So I wrote down the plan I already use as a handful of skills. Then I built a Spring Boot store with Stripe checkout. 57 tests, all green. A retro after every build edits the skills. youtu.be/bHJZiM2XM-w

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 22/09/2026

Spring AI now has an official TypeSafe project. We build a model router from an empty app in 4 classes on one dependency. Send a prompt, get back which tier answers (luna, terra, sol, or astra) plus a confidence score in about 300ms. youtu.be/_5V6sJxRgqk

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 22/09/2026

You're not behind on AI coding agents. You just need three basics to start with Claude Code: the loop, the permission prompt, and context. Everything else can wait. youtu.be/BiKxFmirPpw

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 22/09/2026

An AI that doesn't generate text. It decides. Three apps built with Jev: - Sort 100 comments in seconds - Grade your blog draft as you type - Pick the right model before a token streams All buildable this week. youtu.be/vMpPDJ3bwXI

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 21/09/2026

Six files to one line. I turned last week's hand-rolled Jev client into a Spring Boot 4 starter. Add the dependency, set one env var, inject JevClient, get typed answers. Then we open the starter to see how auto-configuration, conditions, and the imports file work. youtu.be/fq_nYo4BnrY

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 18/09/2026

Jev doesn't generate text. It answers typed questions in about 100ms. One RestClient, one endpoint, and a messy support message returns three typed answers. No prompt. No JSON parsing. Here's how to call it from Spring Boot 4. youtu.be/K4rqR6hcsAo

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 18/09/2026

Flip one flag and the user call fails at 200ms. The Future version still takes a full second. The StructuredTaskScope version returns in 200ms and interrupts the orders call on the spot. Same method, 3 ways, on the JDK 27 API. youtu.be/Nl-a4ukWodk

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 17/09/2026

8 months. 309 commits. 8 months. 309 commits. 80,000+ lines of code. . I built the Spring Boot app that runs my whole YouTube channel. The scary part: Claude doesn't just build it, it operates the app too through its MCP server. Here's how. youtu.be/9O-E7DAfYrE

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 17/09/2026

Skills aren't just for coding. I drop in one raw podcast recording. Four Claude Code skills turn it into an mp3, a transcript, a description on my clipboard, and a spring.io PR. No manual steps. Anything you repeat is a workflow. This is where I start. youtu.be/q3Fk6ADuaSI

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 15/09/2026

Real .cfm templates running inside Spring Boot 4. cfoutput, cfif, and cfloop all render in the browser. The trick is one property that flips the BoxLang starter into its ColdFusion parser. It even runs on port 8500. youtu.be/CLzEQ1Gtqy4

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 17/08/2026

Huge Thank you to @dthompsondev.bsky.social for joining us on Spring Office Hours this week. It was a fun conversation and Danny is what we should aspire to be. Great person and can't wait to catch up with him at Commit Your Code in a couple of weeks! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jzbx...

youtube.com

Spring Office Hours: S5E20 - The Developer's Guide to AI with Danny Thompson

YouTube video by SpringDeveloper

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 05/08/2026

Boris, the creator of Claude Code, mapped out 5 steps of AI adoption. Find out which step you're on and what it takes to level up. youtu.be/g12mC2J11d0

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 03/08/2026

This week's newsletter is out. New videos on Docker Compose and Spring AI guardrails, plus a first look at the Spring Boot 4 crash course I'm working on. Be the first to know when the course is released. Subscribe: www.danvega.dev/newsletter/

danvega.dev

Dan Vega - Newsletter

My Weekly(ish) Newsletter

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 31/07/2026

I caught my AI making three mistakes in a Spring Boot app I know cold. An hour later it gave me Swift code I shipped without blinking. Same model. The code I should trust less felt better. Here's why that happens. youtu.be/UuM2-nRsLuA

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 30/07/2026

Outdated dependencies are an easy target for attackers. AI can help you upgrade them the right way. This video shows when to reach for AI and how to approach the upgrade safely. youtu.be/MYtia9xsTrQ

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 28/07/2026

A system prompt is not a security layer. I built 4 Spring AI safeguards (scope restriction, keyword blocking, output leak detection, PII masking) and show what each one catches and misses. Every one can be bypassed alone. Layer them: www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ6Uh1-8Ui4

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 25/07/2026

That docker-compose.yml sitting in every Java repo confuses a lot of people. It's not about putting your app in a container. It runs the stuff your app needs, like Postgres, so any project just runs when you clone it. Clone. Run. Done. youtu.be/0LNVXHKKJb8

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 24/07/2026

Spring AI 2.0 replaces per-model tool loops with a composable ToolCallingAdvisor in the ChatClient chain. Watch it run live: stream tool-call events into a "Calling tool..." UI, then take manual control when you need it. youtu.be/g6IhOsFKM7c

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 21/07/2026

How long does one YouTube video really take? I mapped every stage from "I have an idea" to published, repurposed, and promoted. Turns out it's 10 stages across 3 phases, and AI now handles the mechanical parts. www.danvega.dev/blog/content-creati…

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 20/07/2026

Embabel 1.0 is here. Rod Johnson's AI agent framework for the JVM hit GA: stable APIs, everything on Maven Central, RAG promoted to production, new model integrations, and better MCP citizenship. Builds on Spring AI, Spring Boot 3.5, Java 21. www.danvega.dev/blog/embabel...

danvega.dev

Embabel 1.0 Is Here: AI Agent Framework for Java Goes GA

Embabel 1.0 is GA. What Rod Johnson's AI agent framework for the JVM means for Java developers, what changed on the road to 1.0, and how to get started.

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 18/07/2026

Spring AI 2.0 moved the tool calling loop into the advisor chain. That means you can hook into it and watch it run. I built a streaming chat where every tool call shows up live as a pill, "Calling getWeatherForecast...", using one small custom advisor. github.com/danvega/tool...

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 17/07/2026

LLMs don't always return valid structured output. Spring AI 2.0 can now detect malformed responses and retry automatically until you get clean, parseable data. Here's how self-correcting structured output works: youtu.be/vxOeeNyOtZY

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 15/07/2026

Can you use Java for AI? Yes. And if you're building AI into real applications instead of training models, it might be the better choice. The training era belonged to Python. The integration era looks a lot like the JVM. www.danvega.dev/blog/can-you...

danvega.dev

Can You Use Java for AI? Why Java Is Better Positioned Than You Think

Can you use Java for AI? Yes. For building real AI applications it might be the better choice. Why the JVM, Spring AI, and your existing team are enough.

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 10/07/2026

AI agents connecting to Slack, GitHub, Jira, and MCP servers can easily hit 50+ tools. That's 55K+ tokens gone before any conversation starts, and accuracy drops fast. Spring AI's tool search solves this. youtu.be/VG00DildlvY

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 08/07/2026

Spring AI advisors are AOP for your LLM calls. Do something before the request, something after. I built two custom advisors: one that logs which tools are visible to the model, and one that tracks token usage per call with a running total. Full walkthrough here: youtu.be/WNJFR-_N9bc

youtu.be

Spring AI 2.0: Custom Advisors for Tool & Token Logging

YouTube video by Dan Vega

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 07/07/2026

You've seen AI generate ugly UI. The team behind Tailwind CSS and Refactoring UI built a set of agent skills that actually produce great-looking interfaces. Design, ideation, and more, all broken into focused skills. Here's a walkthrough. youtu.be/-B7uyMp54S4

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 07/07/2026

Register 47 tools in Spring AI and every one ships its JSON schema on every request. That's ~5,000 prompt tokens before the user asks anything. The Tool Search Advisor fixes it: the model sees ONE search tool. Demo + walkthrough 👇 (Video Coming Soon) github.com/danvega/spring-ai-tool-search

github.com

GitHub - danvega/spring-ai-tool-search

Contribute to danvega/spring-ai-tool-search development by creating an account on GitHub.

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 02/07/2026

Spring AI has two APIs for working with LLMs: ChatClient and ChatModel. They're not interchangeable, and knowing when to use each one will save you time and confusion. www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdIDI71sGZM

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 01/07/2026

X just released their MCP Servers and you can wire them up with Spring AI. Here's a walkthrough to get you started. youtu.be/j4chxGtqkY8

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 29/06/2026

Spring Boot 4.1 introduces @RedisListener, a much simpler way to subscribe to Redis messages. If you've dealt with the old MessageListener setup, you'll appreciate this. youtu.be/lMbgBYlUtfc

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 29/06/2026

Episode 8 of Fundamentals of Software Engineering just dropped. Nate and I talk open source sustainability, what AI tooling actually looks like in practice, and the coming token crisis you should be thinking about now. Catch the recording here👇🏻 youtu.be/kaY8uvnbfis

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 26/06/2026

Spring Boot 4.1 now includes built-in SSRF protection for HttpClient. No extra libraries, no custom filters. Secure by default. youtu.be/PDbBG_GrcwU

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 25/06/2026

Spring Boot 4.1 brings lazy JDBC connections. Your app won't grab a database connection until it's actually needed. This means fewer wasted resources and better scalability out of the box. youtu.be/lsaBN1U2EB8

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 24/06/2026

Spring Boot 4.1 brings first-class gRPC support. Here's how to get started with Spring gRPC from scratch. youtu.be/MPHuBNqbYPM

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 18/06/2026

Spring Boot 4.1 added a property: spring.datasource.connection-fetch=lazy Transactional methods grab a connection the moment they open, even when they never query. Cache hit, early return, slow API call. That connection sits idle. Lazy waits for a real statement. github.com/danvega/jdbc...

github.com

GitHub - danvega/jdbc-lazy-connections

Contribute to danvega/jdbc-lazy-connections development by creating an account on GitHub.

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 14/05/2026

Most developers reach for a message broker the second they need reliable events. You might not need one. Spring Modulith ships with a durable event registry that persists events right to your database. Here's how to use it. youtu.be/KLX9ulb2AfM

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 11/05/2026

New episode of Spring Office Hours coming up at 10:15 AM EDT! • Upgrading Spring with AI tools • How OSS is handling CVEs • What's actually working in 2026 Bring your questions. We'll be live 👇🏻 www.youtube.com/watch?v=zm_EmvdKwYA

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 04/05/2026

🎙️Going live at 10am ET on Spring Office Hours. S5E15: Spec Driven Development with Simon Martinelli, Java Champion and Vaadin Champion. If AI is writing the code, the spec should be your source of truth. Bring your questions. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZjQo0OJD_A

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 01/05/2026

Stop passing null to your Java records. If you're using Spring Data JDBC with a generated id, a static factory method hides the null where it belongs. Same pattern you already use: List.of, Map.of, LocalDate.of. Worth a full video?

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 01/05/2026

You might have started off with a well structured monolith but over time it turned into the classic big ball of mud. If this sounds familiar my latest video will help you create a modular monolith using Spring Modulith. #Java #SpringBoot 👇🏻 youtu.be/xHlDyKVyvig

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 30/04/2026

Spring Modulith brings real structure to your Spring Boot applications, letting the domain drive how you organize and work with modules. If you've been wanting to keep your monolith clean and maintainable, this beginner intro covers what you need to know. youtu.be/xHlDyKVyvig

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 30/04/2026

High cohesion. Low coupling. The two principles every codebase needs, and one of the reason Spring Modulith exists. 🤩 New video dropping soon.

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 30/04/2026

New repo, video coming soon. A hands-on Spring Modulith walkthrough: monolith → modular monolith → decoupled, durable events. Each step on its own git branch. github.com/danvega/contentmod

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 30/04/2026

Working on a Spring Modulith tutorial where we start with a package by feature arrangement 🤯 This is the trap of "package by feature" without enforcement. You've put up a fence with no gate and no posts. docs.spring.io/spring-modulith/refe…

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 29/04/2026

New episode of The Fundamentals of Software Engineering with @nts.bsky.social is out. Why Software Engineering Fundamentals Matter More in the Age of AI www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fJ8bxFVv5A

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 10/04/2026

Want your AI agents to actually do things? Embabel's tools and MCP server integration lets you supercharge agents with real capabilities. Here's a beginner-friendly walkthrough. youtu.be/2mGr7kdstJs

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 09/04/2026

We all agree you shouldn't ship code without tests. So why are you shipping AI agents without evals? If you're writing evals, how are you doing it? Drop your setup below.

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 08/04/2026

I catch mistakes every time I review AI code in a codebase I know well. I catch nothing when it's a language I'm learning. The code looks perfect. It probably isn't. I just can't see the problems. www.bytesizedai.dev/p/can-you-tr...

bytesizedai.dev

Can You Trust AI-Generated Code? It Depends on What You Already Know

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Dan Vega @danvega.dev · 02/04/2026

I finally took Embabel for a spin and recorded my first impressions. If you haven't heard of it yet, this is a great place to start. Spoiler: it's really good. youtu.be/G5VDQCZu6t0

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