dbradwood.com v1: from scaffold to repeatable publishing pipeline

Outcome

• A working site framework with consistent layout, metadata, and SEO plumbing.
• A repeatable publishing pipeline: drop an .mdx file into content/ and it appears in the site.
• Draft safety: drafts can live in the repo without being indexed/published.

Starting state

• Blank Next.js scaffold.
• Dev environment instability risk (multiple dev instances, stale locks, port collisions).
• No content model; pages were placeholders.

Intervention

1) Stabilize development workflow

• Standardized on next dev --webpack for predictable local behavior.
• Cleared stale .next/dev/lock issues by terminating orphaned dev processes and removing .next/dev/ when needed.

2) Build site structure (information architecture)

• Implemented routes:
  • / (home)
  • /about
  • /work + /work/[slug]
  • /writing + /writing/[slug]
  • /contact
• Added a shared shell (header/nav/footer) to enforce consistency.

3) Create a design-token system (enforceable, not vibes)

• Defined semantic tokens (background/surface/text/accent/border) with light/dark values.
• Mapped tokens to Tailwind utilities so the implementation stays consistent (e.g., bg-bg, text-text, border-border).

4) Replace placeholders with a content pipeline

• Added filesystem-backed content:
  • content/work/*.mdx
  • content/writing/*.mdx
• Validated frontmatter with Zod so bad metadata fails at build time.
• Rendered MDX server-side and generated lists/detail pages.
• Ensured drafts are excluded from sitemap.xml and return 404 in production.

Measurement

Definition of done:

• npm run lint passes.
• npm run build passes.
• Creating a new post is as simple as adding a file under content/.

Artifacts

• Repo (private during build/sanitization): dbradwood.com
• Design tokens: src/app/globals.css
• Content pipeline + schemas: src/lib/contentfs.ts
• Example templates:
  • content/work/case-study-template.mdx
  • content/writing/post-template.mdx

Notes

• This is intentionally “boring” engineering: small choices that reduce friction and make future output inevitable.
• The real leverage comes next: publishing a handful of operator-grade case studies and essays that are verifiable and reusable.