If this site feels faster, that’s because it is. empeeryal.com now runs on Astro — static-first HTML, zero client-side framework runtime, and a build pipeline that generates everything ahead of time.
What changed
The previous incarnation of this site ran on WordPress. WordPress is a platform I know deeply, build plugins for, and still recommend for plenty of projects — but a brochure-and-blog site like this one doesn’t need a database query to render a headline. The rebuild moves to:
- Astro 6 — every page is prerendered to static HTML. The only server-side code left is two tiny endpoints: the contact form and the newsletter signup.
- Content collections — posts are Markdown files with typed frontmatter, validated at build time. A typo in a date now fails the build instead of silently shipping.
- Build-time social cards — every page and post gets a generated 1200×630 OG image, no third-party service in the loop.
- Self-hosted fonts, no trackers, no plugin stack — the entire payload is what you see.
What stayed
The standard. EMPEERYAL has always been about imperial-grade craft and emerald-standard excellence — software with no bloat and no mystery dependencies. Practicing that on the company’s own site is the least it can do.
The blog archive is being ported over post by post. The newsletter continues as always — if you’re one of the 15,000+ developers reading it, nothing changes; if you’re not, the fix is one field away.