Simon Willison demonstrates how ChatGPT Work with GPT‑6 Astra can generate 5K and 10K running routes that loop from a specified address using OpenStreetMap data. The system produced an embedded visualization and downloadable GPX and GeoJSON files, and explained that it used Nominatim, Overpass, and local calculations to create the routes. However, the actual Python code used was not accessible due to thread compaction, highlighting a transparency issue in LLM systems that compact conversation history.
I started building my markdown-svg-renderer tool in May , but I've since added enough features to it that it's worth talking about here again. It's evolved into my ideal tool for sharing Markdown transcripts that include SVG documents.
webframe is a Go‑based tool that runs a web page in a hidden headless browser and streams console output and errors to the terminal. It uses the glaze library to access native browser engines (WKWebView, WebKitGTK, WebView2) without bundling its own engine, making it lightweight compared to tools like Playwright. The author evaluated it as both a sandboxing solution and a web‑scraping utility, comparing it to his own shot‑scraper JavaScript tool.
Simon Willison comments on GPT 6.1‑Sol, describing it as "Near‑Astra intelligence for a fifth of the price." He notes that the model’s pelican illustrations are similar to those of the GPT‑6 family and provides links to the live‑blog of the keynote and to the pelican images. The post is tagged with AI, OpenAI, generative‑AI, LLMs, and playful references to pelican‑riding‑a‑bicycle.
The article announces that Claude Code will now support AGENTS.md files starting with version 2.1.277. If a CLAUDE.md file is absent in a folder, Claude will automatically look for and use AGENTS.md, leveraging Claude Code mods to customize the harness. The built‑in mod is available for use, and users can also create their own custom project instructions.
Simon Willison created an animated transition tool that morphs a map from the Mercator projection to the Equal Earth projection using D3. The project was inspired by the recent UN vote on the Equal Earth map projection and was built with GPT‑6 Astra (medium) in ChatGPT Work. It showcases how modern AI and web technologies can visualize complex geospatial transformations.
The article describes a test of the new Python 3.15 profiler using GPT-6 Astra Extra High in Codex to run it against a web-edit application from PyPI. It includes a flame graph and source heatmap generated from this profiling effort. The author emphasizes the use of these visual tools to analyze the performance of the web-edit app.
Simon Willison presented a closing keynote at the WeAreDevelopers World Congress North America, where he showcased a pixel‑art animation of kakapo parrots celebrating a record‑breaking breeding season in 2026. He used Claude Opus 5.5 to generate the animation from Google‑searched kakapo photos, then employed Claude Code with Playwright to record a 15‑second video of the animated HTML5 canvas, which he embedded in his Keynote slide.
Simon Willison introduces GPT‑6 Astra, a new model that offers improved attention to detail, better prompt comprehension, and the ability to generate more sophisticated outputs. The model excels at creating 3D renderings, producing detailed scenes such as gardens, shipyards, animals, cityscapes, and even Dyson spheres. Willison highlights its whimsical creativity, noting examples like a pelican wearing a red neckerchief riding a bicycle.
My comment on Bonsai 2 27B: Near-Lossless Compression in a 9x Smaller Footprint — Hacker News.If you want to try out out the GGUFs from https://huggingface.co/prism-ml/Ternary-Bonsai-2-27B-gguf#...
Tool: LaTeX renderer
Inspired by Paul Ford and Aboard Foundary's new web app Tiny Little Office, which provides a suite of web app content editors (a Word Processor, Outliner, Presentation Bui...
Claude Cowork and the standard chat interface are merging into a single Claude experience, allowing users to hand over tasks or ask quick questions that the system will continue to handle even after the laptop is closed. The rollout will begin with Pro and Max plan users across web, desktop, and mobile, and will extend to new users on these plans over the coming weeks. This integration suggests Claude is evolving into a general agent, simplifying the distinction between Cowork and regular Claude usage.