Astro Weekly #82

Learn RSC by thinking in Astro, build interactive tabs in Markdown, catch up on recent releases

Author

Nathan Lawson
May 11, 2025

Hello, Astronauts!

This week, we’re diving into two sharp technical pieces from the community.

One that frames React Server Components through an Astro lens, and another that shows how to build interactive UI in plain Markdown.

No major updates to report from Astro HQ, but we’ve included a quick roundup of recent releases in case you missed them.

Let’s get into it. 🚀

What’s new with Astro 🗞️

Fresh features, updates, and announcements. The latest from Astro HQ!

Catch up with the latest releases

Recent releases roundup 📦

No major news from Astro HQ this week, so it’s the perfect chance to catch up on what you might’ve missed in recent weeks.

A few minor releases have quietly shipped some big improvements:

  • 🌩️ Astro 5.6 - first-class astro:env and experimental session support in Cloudflare, more control over prefetching, and more!

  • 🧩 Astro 5.7 - stable Sessions and SVG components, a new Experimental Fonts API, and more!

  • 🌟 Starlight 0.33 - more control over social icons, improved access to content, and more!

  • ⚓ Starlight 0.34 - built-in heading anchor links, Tailwind 4 support, CSS cascade layers, and more!

Astro Boosters 🚀

Fueling the mission — brought to you by this week’s sponsor.

Prototype quicker than ever before with Tailscan

The ultimate tool for Tailwind CSS 🔍

Tailscan is the ultimate tool for Tailwind CSS. Build, design, and debug your Tailwind website visually with Tailscan, right within the browser.

Speed up your workflow and prototype quicker than ever before with Tailscan Devtools—an expansion of Tailscan that tightly integrates with browser devtools.

Astro Community 🧑‍🚀

Spotlight on what’s shining in the Astroverse.

Same idea, different orbit

Astro meets React Server Components 🤝

If you’ve been trying to wrap your head around React Server Components, this post makes a compelling case that Astro and RSC are more alike than you'd think.

In a clear, practical comparison, Dan Abramov shows where the models align—and where RSC breaks the mold.

Hold the MDX

Build rich UI in plain Markdown 🧩

Want MDX-like power without leaving .md files? This guide shows how to build interactive tabs with remark-directive, custom plugins, and a splash of localStorage.

It’s a deep dive into Astro’s Markdown pipeline using remark and rehype, with clever hacks for transforming directives into interactive, styled components.

Spotted in the Astroverse 🪐

A few standout posts from the community that grabbed my attention!

If you have something awesome you’d like to share with the Astro community, you can reach me at [email protected] or via DM on X

Blazing-fast Astro themes ⚡

Launch your own link-in-bio within minutes

Self-host your links in style with Linkk 🔗

Linkk is a clean, link-in-bio template built with Astro. Perfect for developers and creators who want a self-hosted alternative to Linktree.

Astro on X 🛰️

Tuning in to the Astro frequency on X!

Astro Boosters 🚀

Fueling the mission — brought to you by this week’s sponsor.

Learn AI in 5 minutes a day

What’s the secret to staying ahead of the curve in the world of AI? Information. Luckily, you can join 1,000,000+ early adopters reading The Rundown AI — the free newsletter that makes you smarter on AI with just a 5-minute read per day.

Astro Showcase 🤩

Fresh from the launchpad: Astro sites worth a look!

Bootstrap

Powerful, extensible, and feature-packed frontend toolkit.

getbootstrap.com

Painted Clouds

Composed of artists and engineers who met in virtual reality, Painted Clouds is a production studio creating realtime CG media through immersive VR pipelines.

paintedcloudsfilm.com

That’s a wrap for another week!

Got something cool cooking with Astro? I’d love to see it. Drop me a line at [email protected] or slide into my DMs on X.

Catch you next week with more from the Astroverse.

– Nathan 👨‍🚀