I asked for an article and got four questions

I typed /articolo. Instead of an article, I got four questions.

Fair enough. The command wanted to save the article in two languages, inside a folder that didn't exist yet.

Where I started

Earlier today the site was Italian only. Then I changed the rules in CLAUDE.md:

• English becomes the main language, with a full Italian version under /it/;
• every page exists in both languages, with an EN | IT switch at the top and two small SVG flags;
• no automatic translator: both versions are written properly.

I also rewrote the rules for articles. Before, they said: first person, short sentences. Now there's a whole list. Start from a concrete scene. Cut the warm-up. Short paragraphs. After every technical fact, a line that answers "so what?".

That's why this article reads differently from the first one.

Then I updated /articolo: every article in English and Italian, every page updated in both.

What broke

The order.

The command was ready. The bilingual site wasn't. No it/ folder, no switch, no English pages. And the plan for the new structure was still waiting for my OK.

So instead of writing, it stopped and asked:

• migrate the site first, or write the article in Italian only?
• English folder names in both languages, or translated ones?
• British flag or American?
• just translate the first article, or rewrite it with the new rules?

My answers: migrate first, English folders, British flag, rewrite.

I wrote the instructions before the thing they described existed.

The structure

The key rule: the Italian version of a page has the same path as the English one, with it/ in front.

projects/website/index.html → it/projects/website/index.html

Same folders, same file names. So what? The EN | IT switch can't point to the wrong page. Every page has a twin, and you find it by adding or removing two letters.

That's why the folders now have English names in both languages. Two projects got renamed: sito became website, tabellone-treni became train-board.

The switch uses no JavaScript. Each page has a plain link to its twin, written in the HTML. Nobody gets redirected based on their browser language: you land on English, and one click takes you to Italian.

Dates are now written as 2026-11-03 in both languages. Neutral, and in the monospaced font they look like entries in a log.

What I learned

Instructions written for something that doesn't exist yet fail in the most boring way possible. They can't find the folder.

A command that stops and asks beats one that guesses. A guess would have left me with a half-bilingual site and an article in the wrong place.

Next step

Same as before, only twice: real texts for the other four projects, in English and in Italian.

Four questions, four answers. One site, two languages.