Jun 13, 2026 · meta · next.js

Rebuilding This Site

Next.js 16, Tailwind CSS v4, MDX, and a palette named after dessert.

This site just got its first real rework in years. Same skull, new bones.

What changed

• Next.js 13 → 16, React 19, Tailwind CSS v4. The whole stack jumped to latest. Tailwind's CSS-first config means the design system now lives in one CSS file instead of a JS config.
• A real design system. Three colors — Sand Nougat, Cacao Husk, Midnight Soil — doing all the work, in both light and dark.
• This blog. Every post is an MDX file in the repo. Writing a new one is mkdir, page.mdx, push.

Why MDX

I wanted posts to be files in the route, not rows in a CMS. With @next/mdx, the framework owns routing and rendering, and a post can drop in any React component from the site when plain markdown isn't enough.

export const post = {
  title: 'Rebuilding This Site',
  date: '2026-06-13',
};

That little export is the whole "front matter" story — typed, validated at build, and the index page reads it straight off the module.

More notes on architecture, AI infrastructure, and the homelab soon. It's good to have a place to put them again.