The first file wasn't a web page

The first file of this site wasn't a web page. It was a list of rules.

It's called CLAUDE.md. Today I installed Claude Code, an AI assistant that runs in the terminal and writes code straight into my project folder. Before asking it to build anything, I wrote down what it needed to know.

Where I started

An empty folder and one idea: a site where I log my projects, so it pushes me to keep moving. I tend to stand still.

The rules file covers everything. What the site is for, who I am, the five starting projects, the technical rules, how articles should be written.

The technical rules fit in three lines. HTML and CSS only. One shared stylesheet. No frameworks, no build step.

So what? Anyone can open these files with a text editor and understand them. Me included, five years from now.

Plan first, files later

I didn't ask for a site. I asked for a plan: how the home page works, what a project page looks like, colors, fonts, the list of files.

Then I read it and pushed back.

The plan used three fonts. I asked for two, saved inside the site folder instead of loaded from Google. Fewer requests to outside servers → better privacy → the site works offline too.

Only after my OK did the files appear:

• a home page with my name in huge letters, the projects and a log of the latest articles;
• a page for each of the five projects, each with its own color;
• a status LED for every project: green and pulsing when active, yellow when in progress, grey when paused;
• a "Next step" box on every project page;
• a template for articles.

The LED is the part I care about most. A grey dot next to a project is a small, silent accusation.

What broke

Two things. Both small.

On the train board card, the status label is long, and the bottom row of the card wrapped badly. The "Open" link ended up on a line of its own, out of place. Fixed: now it always sits on the right.

Then the phone check. The first screenshot at phone width looked cut off on the right, as if the layout was broken. It wasn't. The screenshot tool can't go below a certain width, so it was cropping a wider page. Redone at 390 pixels, everything fit.

So what? Before fixing something, make sure it's actually broken.

What I learned

Writing the rules first made every later decision faster. The answer was already in the file.

Asking for a plan before any files meant I could change my mind while it was still cheap.

Last thing of the day: a command, /articolo, that writes the article for a work session and updates the pages. The first version of this article was written with it.

Next step

The other four project pages are full of placeholders and "To be defined". They need real texts.

It all started with a list of rules. It still does.