[AI] Dev Log #5: Pre-rendered Pages, Panels for Reading, and an Updated Homelab Overview

Summary

Dates: October 18–29, 2026
Commits: 15, all on the dev branch
Files changed: 22 (+403 / −360 lines)
Status: PR #13 (Dev Log #4) is merged to master and deployed; everything here ships with the PR that publishes this post

This round made the site lighter to serve, put the long reads on a panel, and brought the write-ups up to date with the homelab they describe.

Pages are built once at deploy and served as files; only the contact form runs on the server
Blog and project pages are generated at build time
Anything that depends on the visit is set in the browser: the sky’s random counts, the footer year, the pet ages and the years in the industry
The canonical URL no longer ends in a slash, so it matches the sitemap

Project write-ups and blog posts sit on a panel, so the text doesn’t compete with the stars
Outside links in them match the home page: semibold lavender, a small arrow, pink with an underline on hover
The home page uses the About page’s intro, with each pet’s age and the birthday cake, and the cake also shows when the About page is opened directly
On phones the sky no longer rearranges when the address bar hides or shows
The pet photo popup fits short phone screens, so its close button is never pushed off the top

Every page gets its sky, header and footer from one layout, so a page is just its content; the home page opts out because it brings its own sky and menu

The About page leads with the job and explains what an MSP is, and the homelab paragraph names the tools I run
The job title is Systems Engineer everywhere, and the CW Technology titles drop their level numerals
The portfolio write-up is rewritten to match the current site
The Homelab Overview is rewritten: the firewall, switches and seven VLANs, then remote access over a tailnet I host myself, how everything is backed up and monitored, and what runs on the VPS
Posts published on the same day now sort by number, so Dev Log #4 sits above #3 and #2 on the blog and in the RSS feed

Pre-rendering freezes anything that depends on the visit. A random roll or today’s date would be stuck at build time, so those are set in the browser instead.
The mobile address bar changes the screen height. Sizing the sky to the largest height (lvh) and the popup to the visible height (dvh) keeps both steady as the bar comes and goes.
Long text needs a panel. On the busy starfield, a card behind the words made the write-ups easier to read.
A write-up goes stale when the setup changes. The Homelab Overview had to be rewritten once remote access and backups changed.
Detail belongs on the page that owns it. The VLAN table named specific devices and apps; it now describes roles, and the details live in the project write-ups.
Explain an idea before using it. The page leaned on the reverse proxy and the VPS before introducing them, so the sections now run from hardware to software to network rules to access to backups.
A lone “it” needs one clear subject. Several sentences used “it” for two different things.
Dates can tie. Frontmatter dates are midnight UTC, so same-day posts had no order until the slug broke the tie.

Commit	Message
`4af357e`	fix: shared home and About intro, steady mobile sky, pet popup on short phones
`c787970`	docs: note the intro, lvh sky, dvh sizing and commit/dev-server workflow
`048921e`	refactor(layout): render the sky, header and footer from MainLayout
`6b2ed51`	feat(build): pre-render pages and set visit-dependent values in the browser
`d0cf8f3`	feat(about): plainer, more specific copy and consistent job title
`b64278c`	docs(projects): rewrite the portfolio write-up to match the current site
`a8ec7a8`	fix(about): drop the level numerals from the CW Technology job titles
`89c4d7f`	feat(style): put write-ups and posts on a panel and mark outside links with an arrow
`4204d34`	docs(projects): rewrite the homelab overview
`50907e9`	docs(projects): say the site runs on a VPS
`39801c4`	docs: note write-up panels, link arrows and world-building context
`ebc9867`	docs(projects): bring the homelab overview up to date
`2e1c727`	docs(roadmap): add an optional CrowdSec-on-the-VPS item
`1fac78c`	fix(blog): order posts from the same day by number

Plus the commit that adds this post: docs(blog): add Dev Log #5.

Per-project link preview images
Flesh out the remaining project write-ups, including a real homelab network diagram
A “How this site deploys” write-up
A live homelab status widget

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