Migrating This Portfolio From Next.js to Astro

The Migration

I migrated this portfolio from Next.js to Astro (3f69f73c). A portfolio is almost entirely static content, and Next.js was carrying a runtime it didn’t need. Astro ships static HTML by default and only hydrates the interactive islands, which fits the site perfectly: mostly content, a few React components.

The migration also simplified the deploy story. Combined with the mounted static release work from earlier in the month, the site is now a directory of files that can be swapped atomically.

SMTP and the Contact Form

I added environment configuration for SMTP and updated the contact form handling (9b1a9c7f). A contact form that only logs submissions isn’t a contact form, so I wired it to send mail, with environment-based configuration so credentials never live in the repo. The pattern is the same one I use elsewhere: process environment first, then a gitignored .env fallback.

Two New Projects

I added the initial project structure for umbrella (455906dd) and writercourt (007b9324). Both are early scaffolds—configuration and example setup—established cleanly so they can grow deliberately.

Small Staff Fix

I updated composer.lock and the dev-lab seed with new dependencies and fictional data in the staff platform (9859999f). Fictional seed data is important for a lab environment; realistic-looking fake data exercises the UI without exposing real information.

Why Migrate a Working Site

The site worked on Next.js. But every dependency and every runtime assumption is a future maintenance cost, and a static marketing site has no business owning a server framework. The migration was a day, and the operational win is permanent.