GitHub is retiring Spark; export your apps before the Aug 31 shutdown
New signups and app creation are already frozen, and the free Models inference that powered Spark's llm() is gone — plus Simon Willison's new LLM 0.32.
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New apps are frozen, and Aug 31 is the hard stop
GitHub stopped accepting new Spark users and blocked new app creation on Aug 3; the whole service shuts down Aug 31, after which your apps and projects disappear. Export the code first from the workbench via the … menu → Create repository.
The free llm() inference is already dead
Spark ran its built-in inference on GitHub Models, which was fully retired July 30. Any deployed Spark app still calling the llm() function will break — wire in your own provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, or a gateway) to keep it running.
GitHub's answer is Copilot in your editor
The official migration path is to rebuild with Copilot in VS Code, the Copilot CLI, or the GitHub Copilot app. What you actually lose is Spark's zero-config loop — describe an app, get free hosted inference — so budget for a real provider now.
Elsewhere: LLM 0.32 adds reasoning traces and server-side tools
Simon Willison shipped a big LLM release (0.32, in alpha): visible reasoning traces, OpenAI Responses API models, and content-addressable SQLite logs. Companion llm-anthropic 0.26 adds server-side WebSearch, WebFetch and CodeExecution, plus Sonnet 5, Fable 5 and Opus 5.