278: WAL-ing Through Database Changes

278: WAL-ing Through Database Changes

November 11, 2025

31:43

About this episode

<p>News includes the Curiosum Elixir survey closing soon, ReqLLM reaching 1.0 with standardized LLM API support across multiple providers, Isaac Yonemoto&#39;s Codicil library bringing semantic code understanding to AI assistants through MCP, José Valim teasing Tidewave Web expansion to support Django, Rails, Next.js and other popular frameworks, phoenix_test_playwright adding browser pooling for improved performance, Peter Ullrich&#39;s deep dive into using Postgres WAL for database change notifications at scale, and more!</p> <p>Show Notes online - <a href="http://podcast.thinkingelixir.com/278" rel="nofollow">http://podcast.thinkingelixir.com/278</a></p> <p><strong>Elixir Community News</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="https://paraxial.io/?utm_source=thinkingelixir&utm_campaign=thinkingelixir-oct2025" rel="nofollow">https://paraxial.io/</a> – Paraxial.io is sponsoring today&#39;s show! Sign up for a free trial of Paraxial.io today and mention Thinking Elixir when you schedule a demo for a special offer.</li> <li><a href="https://elixir-survey.typeform.com/2025-edition?utm_source=thinkingelixir&utm_medium=shownotes" rel="nofollow">https://elixir-survey.typeform.com/2025-edition</a> – Curiosum Elixir survey open until November 14th, 2025 (about 2 days remaining when episode releases)</li> <li><a href="https://elixir-hub.com/surveys?utm_source=thinkingelixir&utm_medium=shownotes" rel="nofollow">https://elixir-hub.com/surveys</a> – Where survey results will be published after the survey closes</li> <li><a href="https://nitter.net/mikehostetler/status/1985134169899360709?utm_source=thinkingelixir&utm_medium=shownotes" rel="nofollow">https://nitter.net/mikehostetler/status/1985134169899360709</a> – Announcement tweet about ReqLLM 1.0 release</li> <li><a href="https://agentjido.xyz/blog/announcing-req_llm-1_0?utm_source=thinkingelixir&utm_medium=shownotes" rel="nofollow">https://agentjido.xyz/blog/announcing-req_llm-1_0</a> – Blog post announcing ReqLLM 1.0, a Req-based package to standardize LLM API calls and responses across providers</li> <li><a href="https://github.com/agentjido/req_llm?utm_source=thinkingelixir&utm_medium=shownotes" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/agentjido/req_llm</a> – ReqLLM GitHub repository - went through 8 RCs to reach 1.0, includes Google Vertex AI, AWS Bedrock support, and more</li> <li><a href="https://nitter.net/DNAutics/status/1983278808271663452?utm_source=thinkingelixir&utm_medium=shownotes" rel="nofollow">https://nitter.net/DNAutics/status/1983278808271663452</a> – Isaac Yonemoto&#39;s tweet about using an LLM to build an MCP to analyze and service Elixir codebases</li> <li><a href="https://github.com/E-xyza/codicil/?utm_source=thinkingelixir&utm_medium=shownotes" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/E-xyza/codicil/</a> – Codicil - Elixir library providing AI coding assistants with deep semantic understanding of your codebase through the Model Context Protocol</li> <li>Isaac will be speaking about Codicil at ExMex conference (which will have concluded by episode release)</li> <li><a href="https://nitter.net/josevalim/status/1985408862690685315?utm_source=thinkingelixir&utm_medium=shownotes" rel="nofollow">https://nitter.net/josevalim/status/1985408862690685315</a> – José Valim teases upcoming Tidewave Web expansion to support multiple frameworks including Django, FastAPI, Flask, Next.js, Phoenix, Rails, and React + Vite</li> <li><a href="https://github.com/ftes/phoenix_test_playwright?utm_source=thinkingelixir&utm_medium=shownotes" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/ftes/phoenix_test_playwright</a> – phoenix_test_playwright library - executes PhoenixTest cases in actual browsers via Playwright</li> <li><a href="https://github.com/ftes/phoenix_test_playwright/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md?utm_source=thinkingelixir&utm_medium=shownotes" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/ftes/phoenix_test_playwright/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md</a> – Changelog for versions 0.9.0 and 0.9.1 with expanded click support, drag and drop, and browser pooling for reduced memory and higher speed</li> <li><a href="https://github.com/ftes/phoenix_test_playwright/pull/86?utm_source=thinkingelixir&utm_medium=shownotes" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/ftes/phoenix_test_playwright/pull/86</a> – Pull request implementing browser pooling feature</li> <li><a href="https://hexdocs.pm/phoenix_test?utm_source=thinkingelixir&utm_medium=shownotes" rel="nofollow">https://hexdocs.pm/phoenix_test</a> – PhoenixTest documentation</li> <li><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/peterullrich.com/post/3m4qms5kp322y?utm_source=thinkingelixir&utm_medium=shownotes" rel="nofollow">https://bsky.app/profile/peterullrich.com/post/3m4qms5kp322y</a> – Peter Ullrich&#39;s Bluesky post about listening to database changes through Postgres WAL</li> <li><a href="https://peterullrich.com/listen-to-database-changes-through-the-postgres-wal?utm_source=thinkingelixir&utm_medium=shownotes" rel="nofollow">https://peterullrich.com/listen-to-database-changes-through-the-postgres-wal</a> – In-depth blog post about using Postgres Write Ahead Log (WAL) for database change notifications at scale, avoiding pg_notify performance issues</li> <li><a href="https://github.com/superfly/fly_rpc_elixir?utm_source=thinkingelixir&utm_medium=shownotes" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/superfly/fly_rpc_elixir</a> – fly_rpc Elixir library that uses WAL monitoring to track Postgres replication for distributed RPC calls across regions</li> </ul> <p>Do you have some Elixir news to share? Tell us at <a href="https://twitter.com/ThinkingElixir" rel="nofollow">@ThinkingElixir</a> or email at <a href="mailto:show@thinkingelixir.com" rel="nofollow">show@thinkingelixir.com</a></p> <p><strong>Find us online</strong></p> <ul> <li>Message the show - <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/thinkingelixir.com" rel="nofollow">Bluesky</a></li> <li>Message the show - <a href="https://x.com/ThinkingElixir" rel="nofollow">X</a></li> <li>Message the show on Fediverse - <a href="https://genserver.social/ThinkingElixir" rel="nofollow">@ThinkingElixir@genserver.social</a></li> <li>Email the show - <a href="mailto:show@thinkingelixir.com" rel="nofollow">show@thinkingelixir.com</a></li> <li>Mark Ericksen on X - <a href="https://x.com/brainlid" rel="nofollow">@brainlid</a></li> <li>Mark Ericksen on Bluesky - <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/brainlid.bsky.social" rel="nofollow">@brainlid.bsky.social</a></li> <li>Mark Ericksen on Fediverse - <a href="https://genserver.social/brainlid" rel="nofollow">@brainlid@genserver.social</a></li> <li>David Bernheisel on Bluesky - <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/david.bernheisel.com" rel="nofollow">@david.bernheisel.com</a></li> <li>David Bernheisel on Fediverse - <a href="https://genserver.social/dbern" rel="nofollow">@dbern@genserver.social</a></li> </ul><p>Sponsored By:</p><ul><li><a rel="nofollow" href="https://paraxial.io/?utm_source=thinkingelixir&amp;utm_campaign=thinkingelixir-oct2025">Paraxial.io</a>: <a rel="nofollow" href="https://paraxial.io/?utm_source=thinkingelixir&amp;utm_campaign=thinkingelixir-oct2025">Paraxial.io is sponsoring today's show! Sign up for a free trial of Paraxial.io today and mention Thinking Elixir when you schedule a demo for a special offer.</a></li></ul>