Quick one this week: a big open-weights model, a standards handoff, and Anthropic showing off how fast code is now being shipped. Here's what I'd actually pay attention to if you build with AI daily.
## This Week in AI Coding
- **Kimi K3.1 Pro lands on the API.** Moonshot prices it at $2 / $10 per million tokens, and says weights follow by Nov 4. Their own benchmarks put it near Opus 5.5 and GPT-6 Astra; Artificial Analysis scored it 55 vs 58 for Opus 5.5. Worth a test as a cheaper fallback model, but wait for the weights before you plan around "open". ([Simon Willison](https://simonwillison.net/2026/Oct/23/kimi-k31-pro/))
- **Anthropic donates the Agent Skills standard to the Agentic AI Foundation** (Linux Foundation), next to MCP. If you've been writing skills, you're now writing against a vendor-neutral spec, which is the good outcome. ([Simon Willison](https://simonwillison.net/2026/Oct/22/donating-agent-skills/))
- **Anthropic replaced Git internally with a system called Scion.** The reason: CI checkouts would have meant over 600 PB of git traffic a day, and merged changes went from about 2,500/day in May to over 30,000/day by September. That is what agent-scale code volume does to your tooling. ([Simon Willison](https://simonwillison.net/2026/Oct/13/redesigning-source-control-at-anthropic/))
- **Claude Mods: plugins as "middleware for the agent harness".** TypeScript/JS functions that hook into prompts, tool calls and rendering. Powerful, but they run with your permissions and aren't sandboxed, so read a mod before you install it. ([Latent Space](https://latent.space/p/claude-mods/))
- **Codex CLI 0.164.0** adds ten `/presets` prompt slots, masks credentials in remote shell sessions, and fixes failed compaction leaving partial summaries in history. Boring, useful. ([OpenAI Codex release](https://github.com/openai/codex/releases/tag/rust-v0.164.0))
- **Anthropic told investors Q3 revenue rose nearly 50% to $16.8bn** ahead of an IPO, and that distillation by rival labs was 5-7% of revenue before they cut it. Reported figures, not audited ones. ([Simon Willison](https://simonwillison.net/2026/Oct/15/anthropic-tells-investors/))
## Tool of the Week
**Claude Code v2.1.310** (shipped Oct 23). Nothing flashy: the Monitor tool now works on Bedrock, Vertex and Foundry, and there are fixes for compaction after a "Prompt is too long" error and for background cleanup deleting recent files such as pasted images. If you run long sessions, update. ([release notes](https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/releases/tag/v2.1.310))
## Quick Links
- [My obituary for programming](https://simonwillison.net/2026/Oct/19/my-obituary-for-programming/) - Simon Willison, worth reading with a coffee
- [Battle Drones: a vibe coded RTS with audio-based multiplayer](https://simonwillison.net/2026/Oct/20/battledrones/)
- [AI Is Getting Good at Math. Here's Why.](https://latent.space/p/ai-is-getting-good-at-math/) - Latent Space
- [AINews: Kimi 3.1 Pro](https://latent.space/p/ainews-kimi-31/)
## הדופק / The Pulse
**What changed this week**
- [Models] Kimi K3.1 Pro on the Kimi API, $2/$10 per million tokens, weights promised by Nov 4. **Hype / unverified**: the "near Opus 5.5" claim is Moonshot's own benchmarks; the 55 vs 58 Artificial Analysis score is third-party. Source: https://simonwillison.net/2026/Oct/23/kimi-k31-pro/ (2026-10-23)
- [Harness] Agent Skills standard donated to the Agentic AI Foundation. **Verified** (Anthropic announcement as reported by Simon Willison): https://simonwillison.net/2026/Oct/22/donating-agent-skills/ (2026-10-22)
- [Harness] Claude Code v2.1.310. **Verified** (official release notes): https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/releases/tag/v2.1.310 (2026-10-23)
- [Harness] Codex CLI 0.164.0. **Verified** (official release notes): https://github.com/openai/codex/releases/tag/rust-v0.164.0 (2026-10-23)
**AI jobs this week**
- [Member of Technical Staff (AI Software Engineer, Agents) - Perplexity (San Francisco, onsite)](https://llmhire.com/jobs/member-of-technical-staff-ai-software-engineer-agents-perplexity-d3beb9?utm_source=vca&utm_medium=feed) - $220,000-$405,000 listed
- [Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, Training Infrastructure) - Perplexity (San Francisco, onsite)](https://llmhire.com/jobs/member-of-technical-staff-software-engineer-training-infrastructure-perplexity-363f93?utm_source=vca&utm_medium=feed) - $220,000-$405,000 listed
- [Software Engineer - Storage - Supabase (Remote)](https://llmhire.com/jobs/software-engineer-storage-supabase-930520?utm_source=vca&utm_medium=feed)
- [Staff Software Engineer, Payments Intelligence - Stripe (Seattle, New York, San Francisco, onsite)](https://llmhire.com/jobs/staff-software-engineer-payments-intelligence-stripe-260980?utm_source=vca&utm_medium=feed)
337 new roles this week, 5,533 tracked (LLMHire API, 2026-10-25). More at [llmhire.com](https://llmhire.com).
**The Pulse, all week:** https://www.vibe-coding.academy/he/pulse/
**Start here:** the free first lesson at https://www.vibe-coding.academy/he/start/ - or the Builder plan at https://www.vibe-coding.academy/he/pricing/ ($19, about ₪70, 14-day refund).
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