#537: Datastar: Modern web dev, simplified

You love building web apps with Python, and HTMX got you excited about the hypermedia approach -- let the server drive the HTML, skip the JavaScript build step, keep things simple. But then you hit that last 10%: You need Alpine.js for interactivity, your state gets out of sync, and suddenly you're juggling two unrelated libraries that weren't designed to work together. What if there was a single 11-kilobyte framework that gave you everything HTMX and Alpine do, and more, with real-time updates, multiplayer collaboration out of the box, and performance so fast you're actually bottlenecked by the monitor's refresh rate? That's Datastar. On this episode, I sit down with its creator Delaney Gillilan, core maintainer Ben Croker, and Datastar convert Chris May to explore how this backend-driven, server-sent-events-first framework is changing the way full-stack developers think about the modern web. Episode sponsors Sentry Error Monitoring, Code talkpython26 Command Book Talk Python Courses Links from the show Guests Delaney Gillilan : linkedin.com Ben Croker : x.com Chris May : everydaysuperpowers.dev Datastar : data-star.dev HTMX : htmx.org AlpineJS : alpinejs.dev Core Attribute Tour : data-star.dev data-star.dev/examples : data-star.dev github.com/starfederation/datastar-python : github.com VSCode : marketplace.visualstudio.com OpenVSX : open-vsx.org PyCharm/Intellij plugin : plugins.jetbrains.com data-star.dev/datastar_pro : data-star.dev gg : discord.gg HTML-ivating your Django web app's experience with HTMX, AlpineJS, and streaming HTML - Chris May : Senior Engineer tries Vibe Coding : 1 Billion Checkboxes : checkboxes.andersmurphy.com Game of life example : example.andersmurphy.com Watch this episode on YouTube : youtube.com Episode deep-dive : talkpython.fm/537 Episode transcripts : talkpython.fm Theme Song: Developer Rap 🥁 Served in a Flask 🎸 : talkpython.fm/flasksong ---== Don't be a stranger ==--- YouTube : youtube.com/@talkpython Bluesky : @talkpython.fm Mastodon : @talkpython@fosstodon.org X.com : @talkpython Michael on Bluesky : @mkennedy.codes Michael on Mastodon : @mkennedy@fosstodon.org Michael on X.com : @mkennedy

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#537: Datastar: Modern web dev, simplified is an episode from Talk Python To Me - Python conversations for passionate developers by Michael Kennedy.

This episode is 76:37 long.

This episode was published on Feb 21, 2026.

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