Why this site is fast

Someone looked at this site and asked, "what's it built in?" That's the compliment that matters — not "nice colors," but a question about the craft, because the craft was visible. So here's the honest answer, and why every part of it is a choice.

Most "modern" sites ship a megabyte of JavaScript to render a page of text. That's a decision. We made a different one.

The short version: it's Astro — static HTML generated at build time — served from Cloudflare's edge. No React, no CSS framework, no web fonts. Four choices do the real work:

1. Static HTML at the edge. Nothing is rendered when you visit — no server, no database, no per-request work. The page was built once and sits on a Cloudflare POP near you. You're downloading a file, not waiting on a backend.
2. No framework runtime. Astro ships zero client JavaScript by default. The only script on the page is a few kilobytes of hand-written vanilla — the theme toggle, the scroll reveals, the chat widget. There's no framework to boot before you see anything.
3. No web fonts. The type is set in system font stacks — the serif, sans, and mono already on your device. Zero font downloads means text paints on the first frame, with none of the flash-of-invisible-text you see everywhere. It's the single most underrated speed win, and most sites skip it.
4. No CSS framework. Hand-rolled CSS with custom-property design tokens — which is also how light and dark mode work. Nothing unused ships. Small files, no dead weight.

You don't have to take my word for any of it. Open DevTools, watch the network tab, count the requests. That's the point — the claim is verifiable, which is the only kind of claim worth making.

Why it matters beyond this page

This is how we build for clients, too: the simplest thing that's correct, and no ceremony. Reaching for a heavy framework because it's the default — then spending weeks taming it — is how projects get slow and expensive. Most of the time the boring, fast, boring-again option is the right one. Knowing when that's true, and when it isn't, is most of the job.

The stack, in one line: Astro → static dist/ → Cloudflare edge → a git push deploys it. Built with Claude Code, start to finish.