Blog post Updated May 26, 2026

Launching the Site Scaffold

A short build log about getting the first version of cursedfunction.io into a static Astro shape.

  • astro
  • tailwind
  • static-site

The first milestone for this site is deliberately small: a static shell, a content model, and enough layout structure to publish real writing without building a backend.

That means a few things had to stay true:

  • the site needs to work as plain files on DreamHost
  • the content source has to stay in Markdown
  • the layout system should be obvious enough that future changes stay cheap

The payoff is simplicity. Once the page templates exist, adding a new post is just a file in src/content/blog/ and a date in frontmatter.

What changed first

The initial scaffold focused on the parts that affect every page:

  1. shared metadata
  2. header and footer navigation
  3. blog and project routes
  4. a small amount of typography so Markdown reads well

That kept the implementation honest. If a rule was awkward in the first pass, it was probably too complicated for the project.

Why the site stays static

This site does not need accounts, live data, or a rendering server. Static output keeps the deployment model simple and removes a large class of maintenance work.

The tradeoff is that content changes happen at build time rather than through an admin panel. For a personal site, that is acceptable and easier to reason about.