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Justin Wheeler
Justin Wheeler

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From Dusty Requirements to Live Website: How Claude Code Built My Blog Aggregator in a Single Day

#claudecode #ai #vue #webdev

TL;DR

After sitting on a requirements document for over a year, I used Claude Code to build and deploy a complete blog aggregation website in just one day. The site aggregates my posts from multiple platforms under one roof with custom URLs, filtering, and a clean Vue 3 interface. Check it out here or dive into the GitHub repository.

Table of Contents

The Problem That Wouldn't Go Away

I've been blogging across multiple platforms for years now, and it's become a bit of a mess:

  • Bravo LT (my employer): Company blog posts on Wix
  • Dev.to: Personal posts under my own profile
  • AWS Community Builders: Technical content under the AWS Builders organization
  • RedMonk: Participated in their developer certification series

Each platform has its own limitations that drive me crazy. Dev.to appends random characters to URLs making them impossible to guess. I can't customize the slugs for sharing. Some posts are scattered under different organizational spaces. It's chaos.

Back in July 2024, I sat down and wrote a comprehensive requirements document. I knew exactly what I wanted: a single aggregation site that would pull all my content together with custom URLs, filtering, search, and a clean interface. I even specified the tech stack I wanted to learn - Vue 3, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, and Vite.

Then life happened. Personal obligations, work projects, and the general chaos of existence meant this project kept getting pushed to the back burner. I even reached out to three junior developers about taking it on for a fair rate, but got no takers.

The requirements document just sat there in my Google Drive, collecting digital dust for over a year.

Enter Claude Code

With 2025 winding down and my current project ending, I knew I needed to get serious about client acquisition. Having a professional blog aggregator would be a key part of my online presence. The recent improvements in AI capabilities made me wonder - could I finally tackle this myself?

That's when I discovered Claude Code, Anthropic's agentic command line tool for developers. Unlike traditional AI coding assistants that give you snippets to copy-paste, Claude Code can actually build entire projects from start to finish.

The Art of Prompt Massaging

Here's where things got interesting. Claude Code couldn't directly process my year-old requirements document - it was too verbose and scattered. I needed to translate my original specs into something more digestible.

I went back to the browser-based Claude and had several iterations of conversation to transform my requirements document into a focused prompt specifically designed for Claude Code. This process taught me something crucial about working with AI tools: prompt engineering is an art form.

The original document was eight pages of scattered thoughts, edge cases, and technical musings. The refined prompt was a concise, structured set of instructions that clearly communicated the tech stack, core features, data structure, and design requirements.

This back-and-forth process of refinement reminded me of working with any developer - you need to be clear, specific, and organized in your communication. The difference is that AI tools are incredibly literal, so precision matters even more.

What Claude Code Built

The final result exceeded my expectations. Claude Code delivered:

Core Features:

  • Single view listing of all blog posts
  • JSON-driven content management (no code changes needed for new posts)
  • Custom URL slugs with seamless redirects
  • Advanced filtering by date range and source platform
  • Real-time search functionality
  • Dark/light mode toggle with preference persistence
  • Fully responsive design

Technical Implementation:

  • Vue 3 with Composition API
  • Full TypeScript implementation
  • Tailwind CSS for styling
  • Vite for build tooling
  • ESLint and Prettier configuration
  • Modern component architecture

The site aggregates content from all my platforms - Bravo LT, Dev.to (both personal and AWS Community Builders), and even my RedMonk video appearance. Each post redirects to the original source while maintaining clean, branded URLs on my domain.

Why Netlify Made Perfect Sense

For hosting, I chose Netlify as a simple, straightforward option. If you're not familiar with Netlify, it's a platform that specializes in static site hosting with some fantastic developer-friendly features:

Key Netlify Benefits:

  • Instant deployment from Git repositories
  • Automatic builds triggered by code commits
  • Built-in CDN for fast global content delivery
  • Custom domain support with free SSL certificates
  • Branch previews for testing changes before going live

The deployment process was beautifully simple: connect the GitHub repository, configure the build settings (npm run build with output directory dist), and boom - live website. Any time I push changes to the main branch, Netlify automatically rebuilds and deploys the site.

The Claude Code Experience

Using Claude Code was genuinely impressive. It's currently in research preview and represents a new category of AI tooling - true agentic development assistance.

What makes Claude Code special:

  • Autonomous execution: It doesn't just suggest code, it writes complete files and manages the entire project structure
  • Context awareness: It maintains understanding of the project goals throughout the development process
  • End-to-end delivery: From initial scaffolding to final deployment-ready code

The tool took my refined prompt and built a production-ready application with proper error handling, loading states, and comprehensive TypeScript typing throughout. It created a logical file structure, implemented all the required components, and even included configuration files for the build tools.

About Claude Code:
Claude Code is Anthropic's command line tool that lets developers delegate coding tasks directly from their terminal. It's currently available in research preview and represents a significant step forward in AI-assisted development. You can find more information about Claude Code on Anthropic's blog.

Lessons Learned

This experience taught me several valuable lessons about modern development and AI assistance:

Prompt Engineering is Critical
The difference between my original requirements document and the refined Claude Code prompt was night and day. Taking time to structure your requirements clearly pays massive dividends in output quality.

AI Tools Excel at Implementation
Once I had clear specifications, Claude Code handled all the tedious implementation details flawlessly. It's like having a senior developer who never gets tired and follows instructions precisely.

The Power of Modern Tooling
The combination of Vue 3, TypeScript, Tailwind, and Vite created a development experience that felt both powerful and approachable. Claude Code leveraged these tools effectively to create clean, maintainable code.

Deployment Should Be Simple
Netlify's straightforward deployment process meant I could focus on building rather than wrestling with hosting configuration. Sometimes the simple solution is the right solution.

The most surprising part? This entire project - from dusty requirements to live website - took exactly one day. A year of procrastination solved in eight hours of focused AI-assisted development.

If you're sitting on a project that keeps getting pushed to the back burner, maybe it's time to see what Claude Code can do for you. The technology has advanced to the point where the biggest barrier isn't technical complexity - it's taking the time to clearly define what you want to build.

Resources and Downloads

Want to try this yourself or see exactly how it was done? I'm making the key artifacts available:

These documents show the evolution from scattered requirements to focused AI instructions. The contrast between the two approaches really highlights the importance of prompt engineering when working with AI development tools.

Check out the live site and feel free to explore the source code. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the implementation or your own experiences with AI-assisted development.

As always, if you liked this content, maybe you would like to Buy Me a Coffee or connect with me on LinkedIn. Alternatively, you can find all my links on Linktree.

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