Hi, I’m Kei.
I’ve written before about migrating my home server entirely to WordPress. That post focused on the migration work itself, but development hasn’t stopped since. This time, I’d like to look back on “life after migration” — specifically, how I’ve been growing the site day by day with Claude Code.
This article was also written with AI assistance.
The “Not Done Yet” Feeling Right After Migration
Even after the migration settled and the site went live, the moment I started using it, issues kept surfacing.
The navigation looked slightly off on mobile. Font sizes were inconsistent between articles. The card list layout behaved unexpectedly on tablets. Some internal links were broken.
None of it was critical, but it added up. Going through each issue — investigate, fix the code, verify — took a surprising amount of time. Claude Code turned out to be unexpectedly useful for handling these small leftover tasks.
The Practical Value of “Explaining Things Roughly”
What I find most practically useful about Claude Code is that it acts on vague, conversational instructions.
For example, I recently made a request like this:
“The cards on the top page stack vertically on mobile, which is fine — but the spacing feels too tight. I’d like a bit more breathing room.”
That’s all it took. Claude Code identified which CSS to fix, made the change, and handled the deployment. My job was just to review and decide.
The back-and-forth goes something like: “Should I change the padding from 12px to 20px? Or would something around 16px be closer to what you have in mind?” We land on a value together. Since fine-tuning a design means nudging parameters and checking visually, this kind of conversational flow feels like the right fit.
Improvements Made After Migration
Here’s a rundown of what I worked on after the migration, as best as I can recall.
Revamping the Front Page
The top page right after migration was published in a “it works, ship it” state. I gradually worked through improvements: reorganizing the card layout, restructuring the hero area, and thinking about whether the site’s purpose came through at first glance.
When I told Claude Code “I want it to feel like this,” it would suggest HTML and CSS edits. If I didn’t like them, I’d just say “a bit simpler” or “that element can go.” A few exchanges later, we landed on what the site looks like today.
Displaying Recent Updates
I added a “Recent Updates” section to the top page. It uses a WordPress custom post type to manage announcements and displays them automatically on the front page.
How to connect the REST API with the theme’s PHP template was something I figured out in conversation with Claude Code. When I described the data structure and how I wanted it displayed, it would modify both functions.php and the template together. What would have taken significant time to design and code on my own took shape quickly through dialogue.
A Note on Moving Forward Without Understanding
The longer I use it, the more I feel that knowing how much I understand matters.
Claude Code writes the code, but if I don’t grasp what it’s doing, I lose my footing when something goes wrong. There was actually a case where a CSS change unintentionally affected another page, and it took a while to track down the cause.
If I just accept fixes and keep moving, I lose track of what changed where. So lately I’ve been making a point to ask: “What else does this change affect?” and “Why did you go with this approach?”
AI does the hands-on work; I make the decisions. When that division of labor clicks, progress is clearly faster and broader than going solo. But if I defer everything to the AI, I’ll hit a wall eventually.
The Lower Bar for “Just Try It”
One change that’s quietly made a big difference: the barrier to “just give it a go” dropped significantly.
Before, deciding whether to build a feature took time. If the implementation cost was unclear, or I had a nagging sense I’d get stuck midway, I’d push it back — and it would often quietly die there.
Now I can say “let’s try it and roll back if it doesn’t fit.” I ask Claude Code “can we do something like this?” and a prototype appears quickly. I look at it, decide “nope, not this” or “yes, let’s refine it,” and move on. The friction between an idea and an implementation has shrunk noticeably.
What I Plan to Write About Next
This post covered the big picture after migration, but each topic has room to go deeper.
- The custom theme design improvement process (how we got to the current look)
- Quiz game updates (adding questions, UI improvements)
- Security considerations for running WordPress (log monitoring, handling unauthorized access)
All of these involve dialogue with Claude Code, so I plan to include real exchanges as I write them up.
Wrapping Up
Even after migration, the site is growing — slowly. Fixing small things as I notice them is easier to sustain than big releases, and it doesn’t get boring.
I think Claude Code suits an “inch-by-inch” style of work. You don’t need a dedicated block of time — just bring it up when something comes to mind, and something moves forward. That accumulation is what I feel is lifting the site’s overall quality.
Feel free to leave a comment or reach out if you have thoughts.
— Kei