Rohan Kartik. Build journal.Working notes on how this site was built. Branching patterns, photo pipelines, agent versus script tradeoffs.https://rohankartik.com/enThe agent designs. The script ships.https://rohankartik.com/build/agent-as-architect-script-as-mechanic/https://rohankartik.com/build/agent-as-architect-script-as-mechanic/Claude decides what the about page should be. ship.sh decides nothing. The roles don't blur.Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe card frame went away once the photo had alphahttps://rohankartik.com/build/card-to-floating-figure/https://rohankartik.com/build/card-to-floating-figure/Stripping the white card revealed the photo as a figure on the aurora instead of a portrait on a plate.Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTVoice constraints are an input, not a style sheethttps://rohankartik.com/build/voice-constraints-as-input/https://rohankartik.com/build/voice-constraints-as-input/A list of banned words and punctuation is the most useful single artifact I hand to any agent.Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTAtomic commits by defaulthttps://rohankartik.com/build/atomic-commits-by-default/https://rohankartik.com/build/atomic-commits-by-default/Each ship.sh run produces three or fewer commits, each scoped to one logical change.Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTBest-effort patches with explicit fallbackshttps://rohankartik.com/build/best-effort-nav-patch/https://rohankartik.com/build/best-effort-nav-patch/The nav patcher tries two patterns, warns if both fail, and never blocks the ship.Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTBranch per feature, named for the momenthttps://rohankartik.com/build/branch-per-feature/https://rohankartik.com/build/branch-per-feature/Each ship cuts a feature branch from master. The branch name is a sentence about the change.Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe bundle shipper patternhttps://rohankartik.com/build/bundle-shipper-pattern/https://rohankartik.com/build/bundle-shipper-pattern/When the sandbox can't reach the repo, hand the human a single bash command that does everything.Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTPrint cleanup commands. Don't auto-delete.https://rohankartik.com/build/bundle-cleanup-printed-not-auto/https://rohankartik.com/build/bundle-cleanup-printed-not-auto/Every ship script ends with rm commands you can copy. None of them run on their own.Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTSaving alpha into WebP without a halohttps://rohankartik.com/build/alpha-preserving-webp/https://rohankartik.com/build/alpha-preserving-webp/alpha_quality=100 and exact=True kept the soft edges of the cutouts clean over the aurora.Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe working tree must be clean before any shiphttps://rohankartik.com/build/clean-tree-precondition/https://rohankartik.com/build/clean-tree-precondition/Every ship.sh aborts if git diff isn't empty. No exceptions, no auto-stash.Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTCursor as a continuous sliderhttps://rohankartik.com/build/cursor-driven-crossfade/https://rohankartik.com/build/cursor-driven-crossfade/Mouse X drives the about hero through ten wardrobe frames as a continuous cross-fade, not a discrete scrub.Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTOne signature interaction per page, never the same one twicehttps://rohankartik.com/build/distinct-interactions-per-page/https://rohankartik.com/build/distinct-interactions-per-page/The home, about, library, and stack each carry a different interactive idea. None repeat.Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTExtracting the noise URL instead of duplicating ithttps://rohankartik.com/build/extracting-the-noise-url/https://rohankartik.com/build/extracting-the-noise-url/The about page reuses the home hero's noise texture by reading it out of hero.css at install time.Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTTwo media queries decide whether the interaction runshttps://rohankartik.com/build/graceful-fallbacks/https://rohankartik.com/build/graceful-fallbacks/If the device is touch or the user prefers reduced motion, the script never attaches a listener.Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTNoise is what makes the aurora feel like a surfacehttps://rohankartik.com/build/noise-overlay-tunes-aurora/https://rohankartik.com/build/noise-overlay-tunes-aurora/A 14% opacity noise layer at mix-blend-mode multiply takes the aurora gradient from CSS to texture.Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTVercel preview as the review loophttps://rohankartik.com/build/vercel-as-the-review-loop/https://rohankartik.com/build/vercel-as-the-review-loop/Every branch push gets a real URL. The review happens against the deployed preview, not the dev server.Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT1.5 MB of lossy beats 11 MB of losslesshttps://rohankartik.com/build/lossy-vs-lossless/https://rohankartik.com/build/lossy-vs-lossless/Quality 92 WebP keeps the photo's perceived quality and ships under a tenth of the lossless weight.Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT