Cloudflare's AI Built Next.js Clone in 168 Hours, Gets 4x Faster Builds
Steve Faulkner just proved that most web frameworks are living on borrowed time.
Cloudflare dropped vinext on February 24th—a complete reimplementation of Next.js built almost entirely by AI in seven days. Not a toy project. Not a proof of concept. A production-ready framework delivering 4x faster builds and 57% smaller bundles than the original.
The kicker? It all runs on Vite instead of webpack, deploys to Cloudflare Workers with npx vinext deploy, and maintains drop-in Next.js API compatibility.
The Real Story
While everyone's debating AI's coding capabilities, Cloudflare quietly solved the "rewrite everything" problem. Their approach wasn't revolutionary—it was methodical:
- AI wrote code and comprehensive tests
- Automated test suites caught failures immediately
- AI agents performed code reviews
- Every line passed "human-equivalent quality gates"
But here's what others are missing: this wasn't about replacing human developers. It was about eliminating intermediate layers that serve no purpose except historical momentum.
<> "Take any one of them away [well-documented API, tests, Vite, strong model] and this doesn't work nearly as well."/>
Cloudflare's being modest. They've basically proven that any sufficiently documented API surface can be rebuilt faster and better by AI.
Migration Made Trivial
The migration story is where this gets interesting. Using Claude Code, Cursor, or Codex:
1. Run npx skills add cloudflare/vinext
2. Feed it a migration prompt
3. Let AI handle compatibility checks and config
4. Fix the 10-20% it flags for manual review
That's it. No massive rewrites. No months of planning. The AI automates 80-90% of porting work across dozens of different project configurations.
The Vercel Problem
Let's be honest about what's happening here. Cloudflare just undercut Vercel using their own API surface.
Next.js already ran on Workers via OpenNext, but that required Wrangler CLI, custom configs, and multiple deployment commands. Vinext reduces it to a single command while delivering superior performance on Cloudflare's global edge network.
Vercel created Next.js. Cloudflare made it faster.
The math is brutal:
- Zero cold starts on Workers vs. Vercel's serverless functions
- Global SSR without origin servers
- One-command deploys vs. complex configuration
- Open source vs. vendor lock-in
What This Really Means
Hacker News is buzzing (339 points, 109 comments) because developers recognize the implications. This isn't just about Next.js—it's about every framework that exists because "that's how we've always done it."
Cloudflare positions vinext as a "data point" proving AI can bridge API contracts without human frameworks. Translation: expect many software layers to vanish.
The experimental status matters though. Heavy development means edge cases exist. But given AI's ability to iterate rapidly—writing tests, catching failures, reviewing code—those gaps close fast.
The Real Winner
It's not Cloudflare. It's not even developers getting faster builds.
It's Vite.
By proving Next.js APIs work beautifully on Vite's architecture, Cloudflare just validated every developer who's been frustrated with webpack's complexity. The source code lives at github.com/cloudflare/vinext, inviting contributions that could commoditize the entire framework ecosystem.
One week. One engineer. AI agents. Game changed.
The question isn't whether other frameworks will follow. It's how fast they'll need to move before someone else's AI rebuilds them too.
