Web · active

This website

I moved off Squarespace and rebuilt my site with Claude Code, partly to finally learn how programming and GitHub actually work.

Started September 27, 2026

Process: Directed draftingFirst draft

This site replaced my Squarespace site in fall 2026. I built it with Claude Code, and I keep building it that way. This page is about why, and how it works.

Where I started

I’ve wanted to understand programming for a long time. I know a little Python. I read Python Crash Course and Automate the Boring Stuff with Python, and I built a lot of the projects in them. I wasn’t great at it, and I’ve never worked as a programmer.

Syntax was where I kept getting stuck. I could picture what I wanted to make, but getting the code exactly right took most of my attention.

What changed

Claude Code took that constraint away. Once syntax wasn’t the wall anymore, I started thinking about everything else: how a project is put together, how GitHub works, what committing, pushing, and pulling actually do. I started making small things that solve problems for me. For one summer, I even wrote most of my fiction and essays in Markdown, in NeoVim.

Now I let Claude handle the tricky stuff, and I spend my time on the parts I like: thinking, writing, and making things. It’s the same split I describe in How I Use AI. Claude writes a lot of the code. I decide what gets made and whether it’s right.

Why GitHub instead of Squarespace

Squarespace gave me a place to post. This setup gives me a place to build.

My essays are plain Markdown files, the same kind I wrote in NeoVim. Every change to the site is a commit, so it has a history I can look back through. And the same setup that publishes essays can hold my software projects too. As they’re ready, I’ll add demos, screenshots, and write-ups here, starting with a project called wpa-desk.

How it works

  • Essays and project pages are Markdown files in a folder.
  • Astro turns those files into the pages you’re reading.
  • When I push a change to GitHub, GitHub Actions builds the site and publishes it on GitHub Pages.
  • The code lives in a private repository, so drafts stay drafts. The site itself is public.
  • Every essay and project page is labeled with how it was made, so you can see where AI was involved.

Building in public

I write and build in public here. The pages are a little fancier than they need to be, and I’m fine with that. Figuring out how to make them is half the fun.

← All projects