Tanner Linsley, creator of TanStack, joins The Merge to talk about what it really takes to keep open source free, independent, and sustainable.

TanStack is used by millions of developers and sits inside some of the most important software teams in the world. But despite years of VC interest, Tanner has continued to say no to outside money that could quietly change the incentives behind the project.

In this conversation, we get into the real tension behind open source: how to support maintainers, build sustainable partnerships, and grow an ecosystem without turning the roadmap into a customer wishlist.

We also talk about TanStack’s evolution from React Query and React Table into a broader ecosystem, why type safety matters even more in the age of AI-generated code, TanStack AI, Code Mode, self-healing agents, local-first development, and what junior developers should focus on now that AI can generate code faster than ever.

In this episode:

00:00 - Why open source is hard to sustain
02:10 - How TanStack started
08:13 - Why type safety became central to TanStack
12:13 - TanStack’s scale and the AI coding shift
19:02 - The tension between open source and monetization
25:12 - Why Tanner keeps saying no to VC money
35:37 - What is TanStack AI?
38:00 - Code Mode and self-healing agents
43:31 - TanStack DB, ElectricSQL, and local-first apps
50:00 - Tanner’s favorite models and coding tools
57:40 - How TanStack decides what not to build
01:01:26 - Advice for junior developers entering open source
01:05:35 - The biggest myth about open source

Watch the full conversation to hear how Tanner thinks about open source, incentives, AI coding, and the future of TanStack.