Rebuilding My Personal Website: A Journey from Gridsome to Astro

In the ever-evolving world of web development, keeping up with the latest tools and technologies is crucial. This article chronicles my recent decision to rebuild my personal website, moving from Gridsome to Astro, and the key reasons behind this shift. This journey is not just about framework migration but also reflects a transformation in my writing, work, and thinking.

Why Leave Gridsome?

Gridsome served me well, offering a smooth authoring experience and static site generation with Vue.js. However, over time, the ecosystem became inactive, plugin maintenance slowed, and modern web tooling moved on. As a result, evolving the site became harder than rebuilding it, making it an inadequate platform for a personal site that I wanted to use as a thinking space.

The Attraction of Astro

Astro's content-first architecture, minimal client-side JavaScript, and excellent performance out of the box made it an ideal fit for my needs. More importantly, Astro aligns with the trend towards static sites where possible, dynamic only where necessary, which matches my writing and publishing style perfectly.

Intentional Reading Modes

One of the standout features of the new site is the inclusion of intentional reading modes: light, dark, and sepia. These modes not only offer a comfortable reading experience during long sessions but also contribute to a more immersive and unique user experience.

Broadening the Site's Scope

The rebuild provided an opportunity to broaden the representation of my work. The new site includes sections for advisory work, projects, resources, and operating notes, offering a more comprehensive insight into my activities and thought process.

Improved Content Discovery

With the restructured content, series, and tags, navigation and content discovery have become easier for both new readers and those following specific topics. This change also encourages me to be more disciplined in my publishing approach.

Moving to Cloudflare Pages

The decision to move from Netlify to Cloudflare Pages was both practical and strategic. The GitHub-based CI/CD, fast builds, and excellent edge delivery made it a practical choice. Strategically, Cloudflare's acquisition of Astro and its focus on performance tooling and edge services provide a stable long-term platform.

A Site that Reflects My Growth

The rebuilt site is more than just a portfolio. It serves as an operating system for my thoughts, learning, and sharing. The site now captures not just what I build, but how I think about building. With the foundation now solid, the focus shifts to writing more consistently, publishing deeper technical and business essays, and sharing practical experiences from advisory and operating work.

Curious about the previous version of the site? You can still find it here. The new site is live at lewiskori.com.