Simon Willison released llm-coding-agent 0.1a0, an early alpha Python library that provides a Claude Code-style coding agent. The agent includes file read/edit/write tools, regex search, file listing, and shell command execution, all built on the developer's llm alpha tool-use framework. It is available on PyPI and can be invoked via `uvx --prerelease=allow --with llm-coding-agent llm code`, with a `--yolo` flag for automatic approval. A Python API exposes a `CodingAgent(model, root, approve).run(prompt)` class. A demo generated a SwiftUI CLI app that prints an ASCII-art clock.
Anthropic announced that the US Department of Commerce has lifted export controls on its Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models. Access to these models will begin to be restored starting tomorrow, June 31, 2026. Further updates are promised as the restoration process proceeds. The announcement was made via Twitter.
Google has introduced Nano Banana 2 Lite, officially named Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image (API identifier gemini-3.1-flash-lite-image), marketed as the fastest and most affordable model in the Gemini image generation family. The model is designed for high-velocity, large-scale use. In a quick test using Google AI Studio, Simon Willison generated a "Where's Waldo"-style image featuring a raccoon with a ham radio, and found the result more satisfactory than earlier Nano Banana models tested in April. However, the generated text misspelled "Forest Festival" twice.
Anthropic released Claude Sonnet 5 on June 30, 2026, claiming performance close to Opus 4.8 at lower prices. The model no longer supports sampling parameters temperature, top_p, and top_k; it offers a 1 million token context window and 128,000 max output tokens. Adaptive thinking is on by default. While official pricing is unchanged at $3/$15 per million input/output tokens (with a $2/$10 introductory discount until August 31), a new tokenizer produces approximately 30% more tokens for the same text than Sonnet 4.6—effectively a 30% price increase, with variation across languages. The system card notes that Sonnet 5’s lower cyber capabilities compared to Mythos 5 allow safeguards similar to those for Opus 4.7 and 4.8.
OpenAI is previewing the GPT-5.6 series, comprising the flagship Sol, balanced Terra, and low-cost Luna models. Terra matches GPT-5.5 performance at half the cost, while Luna provides strong capability at the lowest price. The models are available in limited preview to trusted partners, with general availability planned in coming weeks. Token pricing per 1M tokens is $5/$30 for Sol, $2.50/$15 for Terra, and $1/$6 for Luna. The release introduces predictable prompt caching with explicit breakpoints and a 30-minute minimum cache life; cache writes cost 1.25x the model’s input rate, and cache reads retain a 90% discount.