[AI] Dev Log #3: Cleanup, Matching Titles, and the Phone Layout

Summary

• Dates: October 17, 2026
• Commits: 8, all on the dev branch
• Files changed: 37 (+193 / −744 lines)
• Status: PR #11 merged to master and deployed; everything here ships with the PR that publishes this post

A smaller round: the site’s code got cleaned up, the page titles now match, and the phone layout is settled.

---

What changed

Design

• Every page title uses one style: large, extra-bold, in the plain text color
• On phones the “Michael Mulek” panel starts 8px below the sun, at any screen height
• New stripes on the sun fade in instead of starting as a sharp line

Theme

• The theme is set in one place, before the page appears
• Pages no longer flash dark for visitors whose system is set to light
• The theme toggle’s animation is part of the site instead of being loaded from jsDelivr

Cleanup

• The nav links and the GitHub, Bluesky and RSS links are defined once, in src/config/links.js
• On a project page, the menu now marks Projects as the current section, like the header
• Deleted 19 unused files: old components, config, scripts and logo images
• README.md lists the current folders

---

What we learned

• Lavender means “click me” on this site. Page titles in lavender looked like links, so titles use the plain text color.
• A percentage can’t keep two things together on every screen. The panel’s distance from the sun changed with screen height; anchoring it to the horizon, always halfway down, fixed that.
• Copies of the same logic drift apart. The theme was set in three places, and one of them started every page dark; the nav links lived in two files and had been out of sync before.
• Every outside request is a privacy question. The theme toggle’s CSS came from a third-party server on every page load; a local copy works the same.
• Files staged earlier ride along with the next commit. Deleted files slipped into the wrong commit; since it wasn’t pushed yet, the commits were redone, one change each.
• Some choices can only be made on a real phone. The gap was picked with a temporary switch at the top of the screen, since Astro’s dev toolbar covers the bottom.

---

Commits

On dev (ships with this post)

Commit	Message
d6436a0	style: give every page title the same look
b41d14b	fix(starfield): ease in new sun stripes instead of starting them as a crisp line
aa146ed	fix(theme): set the theme in one place and bundle the toggle’s CSS
a76db3c	refactor: define the nav and outside links once
9fa5218	chore: delete unused components, config, scripts and old logo files
72fc383	docs: update CLAUDE.md, README and ROADMAP for the cleanup
9c8255d	style(home): start the phone panel just below the sun at any screen height

Plus the commit that adds this post: docs(blog): add Dev Log #3.

---

Next up

• Put the >m_ logo on the home page and in the menu
• Move the shared page shell (header, footer, background) into the main layout
• Pre-render pages at build time for faster loads
• Flesh out the project write-ups

🔗 Repository: github.com/copperpocket/mulek.cc