THE EXPERIMENT
I decided to try something different with this website - building and maintaining it entirely through conversations with Claude Code. What started as an experiment quickly became my preferred way of working on personal projects.
HOW IT WORKS
Claude Code is an AI assistant that can read, write, and modify code directly. Instead of manually typing out HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, I describe what I want and Claude helps implement it. The workflow looks something like this:
- Describe the feature - “Add a contact page with retro arcade styling”
- Review the implementation - Claude generates the code and I check it
- Iterate - “Make the buttons more pixelated” or “Add a CRT scanline effect”
- Deploy - Push to GitHub and Cloudflare Pages handles the rest
THE SITEMAP GAME
The most fun feature so far has been turning the sitemap.xml into a playable Space Invaders game. The sitemap remains valid XML for search engines, but browsers render it as an interactive arcade game using XSLT transformation.
Each page on this site becomes an invader with its own SVG icon. Shoot them all and you win. It’s completely unnecessary and I love it.
LESSONS LEARNED
Working with AI-assisted development taught me a few things:
- Be specific - The more precise your descriptions, the better the output
- Iterate quickly - Small changes are easier to review than big rewrites
- Trust but verify - Always review generated code before deploying
- Have fun - Personal projects should spark joy
WHAT’S NEXT
I’m planning to add more interactive elements to the site. Maybe a high score leaderboard for the sitemap game? Or a terminal-style Easter egg? The possibilities are endless when you’re not limited by your typing speed.
This post was written with assistance from Claude Code. Meta, I know.