What's Left for Frontend Engineers?

August 12, 2025

I went back to Bozeman!

Summary

Building webservices with HTML APIs (aka MVC, aka server-side rendering, aka “rails-style”) is gaining traction again, thanks to improvements in web standards and lightweight HTML-driven libraries like htmx. Although there will occasionally be reasons to go beyond what the platform provides, this will always be the architecture that best aligns with the core competencies of the web, and the platform is improving every day.

But if the backend engineers are writing HTML, what’s left for the frontend engineers? I propose a basic set of responsibilities for the browser specialists on the team.

1. Setup the infrastucture - know how a template engine works, get it installed, and set up the basic page structure
2. Extend HTML - write new custom elements that add declarative capabilities to your templates
3. Be the browser expert - own the more complicated frontend problems—like security and accessibility—and be up to date on the most future-proof ways to handle them

And if you run out of things to do? Well, your backend colleagues are full-stack now—no reason you can’t be too.

Further watching

A number of Big Sky Dev Con ’25 talks touched on similar ideas (hypermedia-mentum?), and if you enjoy this one, I recommend also checking out these others:

“HTML is stealing our jobs!” - Robbie Wagner

“Extending vs Scripting: Lessons from building the Hyperview client” - Adam Stepinski

“The Platform and a Stylesheet (A path to Platform & SPA Parity)” - Tony Ennis