AI Dev Essentials #2: GPT-4.1 Arrives, MCP Deep Dive & Google's Agent Dev Kit

John Lindquist
Instructor

John Lindquist

Hey Everyone đź‘‹,

John Lindquist here with the second issue of AI Dev Essentials! It's been another busy week in the AI tooling world. The biggest splash was probably GPT-4.1 hitting the streets, but there's plenty more action around MCP, Vercel's v0, Google's developer tools, and interesting community discussions. I've spent some time with GPT-4.1 already (specifically in Cursor), and while it shows promise, it didn't quite convince me to switch from Gemini 2.5 Pro yet. It stumbled on a few basic requests where Gemini usually shines on the first attempt.

New egghead.io Lesson This Week:

  • Create a Custom MCP that Calls Cursor Tools: Learn how to build custom MCP server tools that allow Cursor's AI Agent to access your local project context. This lesson shows how to use Zod schemas and the crucial .describe() method to explicitly request information (like Git status or version) from the Cursor environment before your tool runs, enabling powerful, context-aware automation.

Here are the highlights that caught my eye this past week.

Model Mania: GPT-4.1 Arrives, Plus Grok & Llama Updates

  • GPT-4.1 Lands: OpenAI announced GPT-4.1, and it quickly became available via the API and showed up in Cursor. Cursor is offering it free for now to let users get a feel for it, though they don't recommend it as a default just yet. Curious to hear initial impressions from folks testing it out for coding tasks.

  • Grok 3 in Cursor: Following other model additions, Cursor also enabled Grok 3 models, with the mini version available for free users. Aman Sanger noted it seems to "think upfront more than other models."

  • Community Hack: Llama 4.0 via Groq in Cursor: Levi Dan shared a detailed (and slightly hacky) guide on how to wire up Groq's fast Llama 4.0 API into Cursor by using the OpenAI API key slot and intercepting requests. A clever workaround for the adventurous!

Tooling & Platform Pulse

Lots of movement across different platforms and tools this week:

  • Vercel Ecosystem:

    • Guillermo Rauch teased v0 coming to VS Code, hinting at tighter integration for the UI generation tool.

    • v0 also added AI integrations with models from xai (Grok), FAL, Groq, and DeepInfra, including automatic API key setup and pay-as-you-go billing via Vercel Marketplace. They're offering a $10 credit for the Grok free tier.

    • Vercel shared insights on the grep.app migration from CRA to Next.js, showcasing performance improvements. (Source) I'm personally excited about this one – I rely heavily on examples when working with AI, and for me, a good example is often worth ten prompts. Tools like grep.app that make code discovery easier are invaluable.

  • Google's Growing Stack:

    • Project IDX has officially become Firebase Studio, positioning itself as a cloud-based, agentic dev environment for full-stack AI apps, deeply integrated with Firebase. I've tried spinning up a few sites with it, and the speed is impressive. However, for more complex tasks like designing from images or intricate interactions, I still find myself leaning towards v0 for now.

    • Google quietly released the Agent Development Kit (ADK), a Python library (pip install google-adk) for building multi-agent systems with features like state management, tool usage, and orchestration. I haven't had a chance to dive into this yet, but it's right at the top of my list. Building robust agent systems is a huge area of interest, so this is probably the announcement I'm most excited about exploring this week.

    • RamĂłn Medrano Llamas shared his experience moving back to VS Code from Cursor, highlighting the effectiveness of GitHub Copilot combined with the Gemini Code Assist extension (using Gemini 2.5 Pro in Agent Mode). I gave the Gemini Code Assist extension a try myself, but as someone deeply embedded in the Cursor workflow with established keyboard shortcuts and patterns, I struggled to find a flow I liked and didn't stick with it for long. It's interesting to see different perspectives, though!

    • AI features are rolling out more broadly in Chrome, including text grabbing from YouTube videos and Google Lens integration.

  • Cloudflare Corner:

    • Big news for edge compute: Cloudflare Containers are coming to Open Beta in June, enabling running containerized apps (Next.js, Go, PHP confirmed) directly on the edge. This is huge news, in my opinion. Think about all the WordPress sites and other applications that rely on containerization. Opening this up on the edge unlocks incredible possibilities, including for AI applications. I'm super hyped to see what people build with this come June.

    • A new tool, MCPify.ai, launched for building MCP servers conversationally, built entirely on Cloudflare Workers and Durable Objects. (Source)

    • Securing MCP servers is getting easier, with examples shared using WorkOS AuthKit and Auth0.

  • IDE Updates:

✨ Workshop Spotlight: Conquer the Complexity of Cursor (Europe Friendly Time!) ✨

Missed the last workshop or found the timing tricky? This one's for you! Master practical AI development workflows in Cursor in a session scheduled for 12:00 PM UTC to better accommodate European attendees.

This hands-on workshop covers Agents, Ask, Custom Modes, multi-file analysis, effective prompting, Cursor rules, and strategies for handling AI failures. Unlock Cursor's potential and streamline your development process.

  • When: [Check website for upcoming dates - This session is Europe-friendly at 12:00 PM UTC]

  • Where: Zoom (Live Q&A included)

  • Investment: $149

➡️ Read More about the Workshop ➡️ Register Now ($149)

(Team training also available)

Community Buzz & Resources

That’s a wrap for this week! There's always so much happening, it's hard to keep up, but hopefully, this helps surface some of the more interesting bits for developers working with AI.

If you have any feedback or questions, feel free to respond to this email. Always happy to talk shop about the latest AI tools.

John Lindquist

egghead.io

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