What’s new in Playcode

Fixes

• Missing Projects After Update - Fixed a critical bug where some users couldn't see their projects after app updates. The issue occurred when internal data structures changed, causing the app to read from empty storage instead of existing data. Projects are now automatically recovered from the server when this situation is detected. No more need to log out and back in.

Improvements

• Reduced AI System Prompt - Optimized the AI system prompt by ~60%, making each request slightly cheaper.

Fixes

• Chat Character Escaping - Fixed an issue where HTML entities and escape sequences were displayed in the chat preview instead of actual characters.
• Preview URL Dropdown - The HTML page selector in the preview toolbar now stays open when clicking, allowing you to actually select a page.

Improvements

• AI Import Now Works with Full Responses - Copy the entire AI response including explanations and markdown. We automatically extract the JSON code block and apply changes. No more "Failed to parse" errors!
• Helpful Tooltips - Hover over Copy, Paste, and Apply buttons to see step-by-step instructions on how to use the ChatGPT/Gemini workflow.
• Better Error Messages - When something goes wrong, you now get actionable guidance on how to fix it.

Improvements

• Truly Empty Templates - Empty JavaScript, TypeScript, HTML, and CSS templates are now minimal. Just the bare essentials with a single comment to get you started from scratch.

Fixes

• Live View Delay - Changing the delay setting now applies immediately. Previously, adjusting the delay in preferences had no effect until page reload.

Improvements

• Cleaner Read-Only Presentations: When sharing a read-only project, only the owner's cursor is now visible. Viewer cursors are hidden, preventing visual chaos when presenting to large groups like classrooms with 40+ students.

Fixes

• Binary Assets in NPM Packages: Fixed support for npm packages that include binary assets like fonts, images, audio, and video files. Packages like @expo/vector-icons, icon libraries, and media packages now work correctly.

Fixes

• Chat Connection Stability: Fixed multiple bugs causing the AI chat to disconnect unexpectedly. The chat is now much more stable and reliable.
• Agent Task Interruption: Fixed an issue where the AI agent would randomly stop working on tasks without being prompted to do so.
• GPT-5.1 Codex Pricing: Fixed incorrect cost calculation for GPT-5.1 Codex model usage.

New

• Import Maps Support: Use import maps with CDN URLs like unpkg, esm.sh, or skypack. Import Three.js, React, or any library directly from CDN without npm install.

Improvements

• Smaller Published Sites: Simple HTML pages without npm dependencies no longer include unnecessary runtime code, reducing bundle size by ~238KB.
• Better Error Messages: Module resolution errors now show the actual esbuild error with helpful suggestions instead of generic "not installed" messages.

Fixes

• Production Build Errors: Fixed "Identifier already declared" errors in published sites caused by minification conflicts between bundles.
• Dependencies Now Minified: Published sites now properly minify npm dependencies for smaller file sizes.

Improvements

• AI Usage History Redesign: Completely redesigned usage tracking with server-side pagination, quick time filters (Today, Yesterday, This Week, etc.), spending summaries, and model names for each request.
• Updated Code Editor: Upgraded Monaco Editor (VSCode engine) to the latest version with improved TypeScript support and better performance.
• Faster Bundler: Updated esbuild to version 0.27.1 for faster builds and improved module resolution.

Fixes

• AI Chat Revert: Fixed an issue where AI-generated code changes didn't always revert properly when clicking "Reject".
• Chat Input Overflow: Fixed the chat input field growing excessively large when pasting long content.

New

• Delete Files - Ask the AI to remove files from your project. Full undo support to restore deleted files instantly.
• Move & Rename Files - Ask the AI to move files to different folders or rename them. Undo restores the original location.

Fixes

• Undo Button Fix - Clicking undo on a specific change now correctly reverts that change. Previously, the last change wasn't being undone.

Fixes

• Angular Hot Reload - Fixed critical issue where Angular projects would crash after 2-3 code edits with "Maximum call stack size exceeded" or "JIT compiler not available" errors. The fix: upgraded to Angular 21 with zoneless mode. No more zone.js, cleaner hot reload, smaller bundles, and better performance.

Improvements

• Angular 21.0.2 - Updated from Angular 17 to the latest Angular 21 with modern features and improved performance.
• Zoneless Change Detection - Angular template now uses provideZonelessChangeDetection() for cleaner architecture without zone.js overhead.

New

• Angular Template - The long-awaited Angular support is here! Many users requested this, and now you can build Angular apps directly in Playcode with full TypeScript support, standalone components, and live preview. New landing page at /angular.
• Developer Portfolio Template - Beautiful personal website template with hero section, about, skills grid, project showcase, experience timeline, and contact section. Perfect for developers looking to showcase their work.
• Blog Template - Multi-page blog with featured posts, category filters, clean article typography, code blocks, and newsletter signup. Built with React and Tailwind CSS.
• SaaS Landing Page Template - Professional landing page with animated hero, pricing toggle (monthly/yearly), feature grid, testimonials carousel, and company logos. Ready for your next product launch.

Improvements

• All Templates Redesigned - Every template has been rewritten from scratch with modern, beautiful designs. Dark themes, glassmorphism effects, gradient backgrounds, smooth animations, and interactive elements. Templates now look like real production websites, not simple demos.
• Template Selection UI - Modernized the template picker with better organization, showcase section for full-featured templates, and "NEW" badges for recently added templates.

Fixes

• Email Notifications - Fixed an issue with Cloudflare that was incorrectly pushing out email notifications. This was causing unnecessary emails that many users found annoying. The issue is now resolved.

Major Update: AI Coding Agent is Here!

Write, edit, and understand code with an AI assistant that works like Cursor. Real-time streaming, multiple tabs, and 12+ models to choose from.

New

• AI Coding Agent - A powerful AI assistant that can write code, edit files, understand your project, and help you build faster. Works just like Cursor, right in your browser.
• Multi-Tab Support - Work on multiple files simultaneously. The AI can read and edit different files in your project at the same time.
• Real-Time Streaming - Watch the AI write code in real-time. See exactly what's happening as it generates and edits your files.
• 12+ AI Models - Choose from the latest models: Claude Haiku 4.5, Claude Sonnet 4.5, Claude Opus 4.5, GPT-5.1 series, Grok 4.1 series, Gemini 3 Pro, OpenAI o3, and more.
• Chat History - All your conversations are saved. Rename or delete chats, and pick up where you left off.
• Undo Changes - Made a mistake? Undo any changes the AI made with a single click.
• Instant Publish - Build with AI and publish your site immediately to Playcode Pages.

Model Recommendations

• Best Value - Claude Haiku 4.5: Fast, cheap, and effective for most tasks.
• Best Quality - Claude Opus 4.5: The best price-to-quality ratio for complex coding tasks.
• Budget Option - Grok Code Fast 1: Great for saving money while still getting solid results.

Pricing

Pay-as-you-go on top of your Pro subscription ($9.99/month). You only pay for what you use. Balance never expires, and you can top up anytime.

Beta Notice

This is a beta release. Some features may not work perfectly yet, but we're actively improving and fixing issues quickly. Your feedback helps us make it better!

Learn more in our AI Agent help article or check your AI credits balance.

Improvements

• UI Redesign - Completely redesigned Sign In page, authentication popup, welcome onboarding, and account settings with modern blue gradients, orange action buttons, and cleaner layouts. Improved responsiveness across all screen sizes. All flows now have consistent, professional design.
• Collaboration UI - Fixed visual bug where the collaborators list would cut off with many users. New overlapping avatar design handles 30+ collaborators with a "+N more" indicator.

Fixes

• Custom domain SSL certificates now generate automatically for paid users
• Fixed DNS validation to prevent misconfigured domains from causing errors

Improvements

• Visible Save Button - Added a prominent Save button in the editor header that appears when your project has unsaved changes
• Notion-Style Drag Handles - Added 6-dot drag handles to project rows that appear on hover, making drag-and-drop more intuitive
• Permanent Delete - Delete archived projects permanently from the Archive view with a confirmation dialog
• Drag-to-Archive - Quickly archive projects by dragging them to the Archive folder
• Drag-to-Restore - Restore archived projects by dragging them from Archive into any folder - they'll automatically be unarchived and moved in one step
• User Avatar Menu - Added a user avatar in the header (both editor and dashboard) that opens a context menu with quick access to Account, Billing, and Logout
• Unpublish Websites - Added ability to unpublish your websites via a subtle link in the Publish popover, making your site inaccessible at the public URL
• Dashboard Plus Menu - Added a plus icon next to "PROJECTS" in the sidebar that opens a menu for creating new projects or folders
• Cleaner Dashboard Design - Removed row borders, simplified sidebar by removing redundant navigation buttons, and reduced visual clutter with subtle styling

Fixes

• Navigation After Save - Fixed issue where saving a project before navigating away would prevent the navigation from completing

Improvements

• Premium Pro Identity - Beautiful purple-to-red gradient for all Pro branding (badges, upgrade buttons, pricing cards)
• Unified Design System - All dialogs, notifications, menus, tooltips, and context menus now share consistent styling with theme-aware gradients
• Redesigned Dashboard - Modern card-based layout with improved visual hierarchy and navigation
• Enhanced Pricing Pages - Clearer feature comparison and improved upgrade flow
• Better Onboarding - Improved template selection and project creation experience
• Refined Theme Support - Optimized gradients, borders, and hover states for Dark, Blue, Gray, and Light themes
• Pro Badge - Premium badge displays next to username in sidebar for Pro users

Fixes

• Desktop App Downloads - Fixed download links for Windows, macOS, and Linux applications
• Windows Application - Resolved critical issues preventing Windows app from launching
• Security Improvements - Enhanced data protection and authentication security
• Cache Issues - Fixed caching problems that affected application performance

Fixes

• Resolved "Missing Projects" Issue - We discovered and fixed a critical authentication bug that caused some users to see their projects disappear after our recent backend migration. Your projects were never lost, they were always safely stored in our database. The issue was caused by outdated authentication tokens from our previous system that became incompatible with our new backend. Our attempt to maintain backward compatibility inadvertently created this problem.
• Authentication System Migration - We've completed the migration to a more reliable authentication system. All users now use the same secure token format, eliminating future compatibility issues.
• Database Initialization - Fixed an issue where signing in via email or Google popup wouldn't properly initialize the user database, preventing new project saves.
• Template Preservation - Fixed a bug where creating a template while signed out and then signing in would cause the template to disappear. Templates now properly survive the login process.

Why the forced logout? To ensure all users get the new, correctly formatted authentication tokens, we had to reset everyone's session. This is a one-time inconvenience that permanently resolves the authentication issues. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused and appreciate your patience as we worked to identify and fix the root cause.

New

• Multiplayer collaboration - Ability of multiple individuals to work together in real-time on a shared project
• React Course
• Clear console logs option

Improvements

• .JS files now work as .JSX - many React users expect this behavior
• Projects created by paid accounts no longer have the 8 lines limitation
• Console better displays structures of nested objects and their prototypes
• Preserved collapsed file directories on file creating/renaming
• Improved installing speed for large packages (React MUI, Framer, MUI Icons, etc.)

Fixes

• Fixed rate limiting issues when redeeming AppSumo deals
• Projects in My Projects can now be opened in new tab with Ctrl+click or middle button

New

• Favorites
• Save project as a favorite template

Improvements

• Set a default project in template selection popup. "Default project" is used instead of initial page, helping to open preferred template faster

Fixes

• Fixed setting up a default project or template

New

• Upload folders with files
• Drop folders and files right on files list
• Autoselect filename without extension on renaming

Improvements

• Double click to rename a file
• Double click on "Untitled" to rename a project
• Show package.json (it was hidden before)

Fixes

• Fixed .svg using with <img src="file.svg">

New

• Add Discord chat
• Add Rimbu template
• Add option to make Website View white by default

Improvements

• Return back Lifetime subscription for $199
• Reduce home page size

Fixes

• Fixed @rimbu/core package (it was producing infinite recursion)
• Fixed a lot of testing errors in Frontend Developer Path course

Improvements

• Speed up code building process 3.5 times! 🚀 Thanks to Yura for helping find the bottleneck. React MUI now loads in 3-5 seconds instead of 10-15 on first load.

Fixes

• Fixed inability to make a new line by pressing Enter in Courses editor

New Templates

• Svelte template
• React TypeScript Classes template
• React TypeScript Hooks template
• React Redux Toolkit template
• React Mobx template

Improvements

• Add exercise numbers to the Courses
• Better colors for Light color theme
• Fix comments color and making it italic for Gray theme

Fixes

• Fixed JSON template
• Fixed fetching assets (fetch('/texture.bin')...). Better support for Three.js

New

• Lifetime price option - Switch from monthly/yearly plan by sending us a message
• Add roadmap and feature requests pages

Improvements

• Add closing button to promo-limitation popup

Fixes

• Fixed downloading empty .zip on Windows
• Fixed Live View for split editors
• Fixed Copy Link on the share popup
• Fixed uploading .js files
• Fixed the 12th exercise on the cat-photo-app learning course

New

• More HTML & CSS courses
• Improved courses dashboard
• Updated dark color theme
• Add Emmet shortcuts for jsx, tsx, css, scss, sass, less, stylus, html, pug
• Add Exit confirmation - Helps avoid losing code changes

Improvements

• Updated Version History popup

Fixes

• Fixed contrast for light color theme
• Fixed a lot of bugs in courses
• Fixed SSL generation for Custom domains
• Returned the Delete button for Version History
• Fixed default value for a project title renaming