New Gear, New Course, and a Whole Lot of Content

Happy Monday, friends! I hope you had a great weekend. Last week was one of those weeks where everything just clicked. I got a new audio interface and microphone, and I couldn't wait to put them to work. The result? A bunch of new videos, including a full 10-video course on GraphQL for Java developers that I planned, recorded, edited, and published in about 6 hours. I'm still riding that wave of productivity. On top of the course, I put out a few standalone videos that I think you're really going to enjoy. Let's get into it.

Video Recaps

Excalidraw MCP Server

If you've been following along with anything MCP-related, you know I'm all in on exploring what these servers can do. In this video, I walk through an MCP server that streams hand-drawn Excalidraw diagrams with smooth viewport camera control and interactive fullscreen editing.

What makes this one cool is the combination of the hand-drawn aesthetic that Excalidraw is known for with the power of an MCP server driving the whole thing. If you've ever wanted to generate diagrams from your AI workflows and have them look like something a human actually sketched on a whiteboard, this is it.

Spring, Build Me a Coding Agent

This one got a lot of attention on Twitter, and for good reason. Spring AI now has Claude Code-inspired agent skills, and in this video I show it building a HelloWorld RestController from a single prompt. We're at a point where you can describe what you want and watch Spring AI act as a coding agent to make it happen.

I think this is a really important video for anyone trying to understand where AI-assisted development is heading, especially in the Spring ecosystem. It's not about replacing developers — it's about understanding these tools so you can use them effectively. It's also not just about building a coding agent. You can use this same approach and the tools available to build your own agents for almost any scenario.

Embabel First Look

Embabel has been on my radar for a while, and I finally got hands on with it. First impressions: it's really good. In this video I take you through my initial exploration of the framework and show you what it can do.

If you haven't heard of Embabel yet, this is a great starting point. I break down the core concepts and walk through some real examples so you can decide if it's something worth adding to your toolkit.

GraphQL for Java Developers (Full Course)

I mentioned this at the top, but I want to make sure you don't miss it. I published a 10-video course called "GraphQL for Java Developers" on YouTube. This is a free, structured course that takes you from zero to productive with GraphQL in a Java/Spring context.

If you've been curious about GraphQL but haven't found the right on-ramp from the Java side, this is for you. I cover the fundamentals, schema design, queries, mutations, and more. You can find the full playlist here and I also wrote a companion blog post if you prefer reading through the concepts first.

Spring Office Hours

Last week, DaShaun and I sat down with Daniel Garnier-Moiroux to talk about testing Spring Boot applications. That was a really fun conversation. Testing is one of those topics that everyone agrees is important, but the practical "how do I actually do this well in Spring Boot?" part trips people up. Daniel had some great insights, and I think you'll get a lot out of that episode if you haven't watched it yet. He is also writing a book on the subject, so it was great hearing about his process and how the book is going.

This week, we talk with Arun Gupta on developer soft skills. Arun is a DevRel and Java legend who's worked at Sun, Oracle, Intel, AWS, and Apple. We talked about a topic that doesn't get enough airtime: how communication, empathy, and what Arun calls "force multiplying" through non-technical skills can make or break your career. If you've ever felt like your technical skills are strong but you're not advancing the way you'd like, this episode is for you.

Upcoming Speaking Engagements

I'll be at Arc of AI in Austin, TX from April 13–16, and I'm giving two talks:

Building and Securing MCP Servers in Java: Java developers face a real challenge when it comes to securely connecting AI models with enterprise data and tools. MCP is transforming how AI applications interact with external systems, and in this session I'll cover the building blocks and show you how to build, secure, and test your MCP servers.
Fundamentals of Software Engineering in the Age of AI: There's been a lot of noise about AI replacing developers. Not so fast. In this talk, I'll make the case that agentic coding assistants make the fundamentals more important, not less. If you want to use these tools effectively, you still need to master the craft.

If you're going to be in Austin, come say hi!

In the News

Gemma 4 Goes Open Source

Google DeepMind released Gemma 4 under the Apache license. You can read more about it here.

Dan's Thoughts: This is a big deal. Having a model of this caliber available under the Apache license means Java developers and enterprises can run it wherever they want without licensing headaches. I can't wait to try this out, especially in combination with Spring AI.

Spring AI 2.0.0 M4 Released

The fourth milestone release of Spring AI 2.0.0 is now available. Alongside it, maintenance releases 1.1.4 and 1.0.5 also dropped.

Dan's Thoughts: Spring AI is moving fast, and each milestone gets us closer to a stable 2.0 release. If you're building AI-powered applications with Spring, now is a great time to start experimenting with the 2.0 milestones. The improvements in each release have been significant, and the video I published this week on building a coding agent with Spring AI shows just how capable this framework is becoming.

AI4JVM: Java Meets Artificial Intelligence

A new community resource has launched at ai4jvm.com, focused on the intersection of Java and AI.

Dan's Thoughts: I love seeing dedicated resources pop up around Java and AI. The JVM ecosystem has so much to offer in the AI space, and having a central place for the community to learn and share is great. Definitely worth bookmarking.

UNTIL NEXT WEEK

I hope you enjoyed this newsletter installment, and I will talk to you in the next one. If you have any questions for me or topics you would like me to cover please feel free to reply to this email or reach out to me on Twitter.

Happy Coding,
Dan Vega
https://www.danvega.dev