I rebuilt this site with the help of an AI assistant. It was a fun, highly caffeinated experiment, but also a useful reality check about today's “agentic AI.”

TL;DR

• AI helped me move fast on repetitive tasks: file scaffolding, safe refactors, content-driven architecture, TypeScript migration, and responsive polish.
• The “agentic” bit still needed a lot of prompting. It's powerful, but not autonomous magic — steering matters.
• Content > env: metadata, profile, links, and about now live under content/, keeping code clean and portable.

Why I tried it

I wanted a clean personal site that:

• Starts fully server-rendered (Next.js App Router)
• Reads content from the repo (Markdown/JSON)
• Is easy to deploy on Netlify without special infra

An AI pair worked well for fast iteration and small, careful changes — especially around layout and content separation.

What we built together

• A content‑first site that’s easy to edit and publish
• Clean separation between code and content
• Newest‑first listings for posts and articles, with sensible drafts
• TypeScript migration and small UX polish (responsive header, typography)

A concrete example: human + agent

• What I noticed: navigation felt slow; links triggered full page loads instead of SPA transitions.
• What the agent did: audited internal anchors and replaced them with next/link across Nav, Home, Blog index, and Articles index; added per-post SEO metadata for Blog; improved the Articles tag filter UI and added tag badges on article pages.
• Result: instant-feeling navigation via prefetch, better sharing cards, and a cleaner filter UI.

Human intuition, prompts, and time saved

• Intuition matters: a human noticed the “feel” of page loads wasn’t SPA‑like. That observation shaped a precise fix.
• Be explicit: writing expectations into prompts and AGENTS.md (e.g., “use next/link for internal routes,” “add per-page SEO,” “separate content from code”) prevents drift.
• Time cost: when these constraints aren’t stated, agents explore the space blindly, adding back‑and‑forth and delay. Clear guardrails usually save several iterations—hours in practice—on navigation, SEO, and content modeling.

Prompts > “agents”

There were moments where it looked “agentic,” but the best outcomes still came from clear prompts, tight constraints, and incremental commits. The assistant handled the mechanics; I kept the direction. That’s the sweet spot today.

Lessons learned

• Content as JSON/MD scales better for small sites.
• Small, reversible changes + automated validation beats big rewrites.
• CSS details (spacing, headings, responsive behavior) deserve iterative checks — AI can help, but you still need an eye.

What’s next

• Add a few real posts and longer articles.
• Maybe wire Decap CMS on Netlify Identity for editing on the go.
• Keep the site simple, fast, and content-first.

Footer says it best: “Fuelled by ☕️ and the company of an AI agent.” Not autonomous yet — but a great coding partner.