stefantaitano.com

Personal website and writing home for Stefan Taitano.

Live site: stefantaitano.com

This repository powers a personal site built with Eleventy. Writing, talks, projects, a /now page, platform links, and generated feeds all live here. Stefan is an Army veteran turned ServiceNow developer, getting deeper into Ruby and slowly training for a 2027 marathon.

What This Site Is

• Personal website
• Article archive
• /now page
• Talks, projects, résumé, and a /links/ page
• Home for experiments that do not fit cleanly on social platforms

Current Status

• Homepage is a pixel night-sky banner, then type (no circle portrait). /now leads with Commit Your Code volunteering.
• Top nav is four items: Now, Articles, Talks, Projects. Bookshelf, Field Notes, and Links live in the footer.
• Inner pages share a calm intro. Talks stay cinematic. The photo is on /links/ as a rounded square; holding it is a small easter egg.
• Branding: slate + amber, Fraunces + Atkinson Hyperlegible + Caveat, ST monogram, favicons.
• Writing lives here. Medium is a footer identity link, not a competing CTA.
• Product checklist is complete. Next work is content as it comes: articles, /now, and projects.

Stack

• Eleventy as the static site generator
• Nunjucks, Markdown, and data files for content and templates
• CUBE CSS with Tailwind utilities, design tokens, and local CSS layers
• Netlify for deployment
• Generated Atom and JSON feeds
• Generated Open Graph assets and image optimization
• Accessibility checks available through pa11y

Local Development

Requirements

• Node >=20

Install

npm install

Run locally

npm start

Build for production

npm run build

Run accessibility checks

npm run test:a11y

Deployment

The site is configured for Netlify.

• Build command: npm run build
• Publish directory: dist
• Security headers and cache headers are defined in netlify.toml
• vercel.json mirrors those cache headers if the site is served from Vercel

The canonical site URL comes from src/_data/meta.js and defaults to:

https://stefantaitano.com

If needed, you can override it with the URL environment variable.

Project Structure

src/
  _data/          Site metadata, navigation, personal links, projects, résumé, external data
  _includes/      Reusable partials and head templates
  _layouts/       Base, page, post, and tag layouts
  _config/        Eleventy config, filters, shortcodes, events, setup scripts
  pages/          Standalone pages: home, now, articles, talks, projects, links, résumé, bookshelf, colophon
  posts/          Blog posts and article content
  talks/          Talk pages
  now-entries/    Dated /now notes
  common/         Feeds, redirects, sitemap, robots, manifest, misc outputs
  assets/         CSS, JS, SVG, images, talk slides

Key Files

• src/pages/index.njk: homepage and current preview sections
• src/pages/now.njk: current /now page
• src/pages/articles.njk: article index and pagination
• src/pages/talks.njk and src/talks/: talks index and individual talks
• src/pages/projects.njk and src/_data/projects.yaml: data-driven projects page
• src/pages/links.njk and src/_data/links.yaml: /links/ page
• src/pages/resume.njk and src/_data/resume.yaml: résumé
• src/_layouts/post.njk: post layout, newsletter CTA insertion, edit link
• src/_data/meta.js: site URL, metadata, feeds, theme, and testing config
• src/_data/navigation.js: top and bottom navigation links
• src/_data/personal.yaml: personal links and profile/platform data
• src/_includes/partials/newsletter-cta.njk: current Field Notes CTA
• netlify.toml: deployment, security, and cache header config
• docs/site-voice.md: voice guide for page copy

Content Workflow

Add a new article

1. Create a new Markdown file in src/posts/
2. Add front matter such as title, description, and date
3. Add one or two hand-picked internal links under related so the article suggests a useful next read
4. Optionally include hero image metadata if the post needs it
5. Run npm start or npm run build to verify output

related:
  - title: A related article title
    url: /articles/related-article/

Update a page

• Standalone pages live in src/pages/
• Shared metadata and links live in src/_data/
• Reusable UI pieces live in src/_includes/partials/
• Check docs/site-voice.md before writing headings, introductions, project summaries, or calls to action

External or generated content

• Lichess data is pulled through src/_data/lichess.js
• Feed outputs are generated through src/common/feed-atom.njk and src/common/feed-json.njk
• robots.txt, _redirects, and sitemap.xml are generated from src/common/

What Has Been Done

• Personalized the Eleventy Excellent starter into a custom personal site
• Rewrote the homepage around a pixel night sky, type-first intro, /now, recent articles, and Field Notes
• Built a /now page with live Lichess stats pulled at build time
• Seven articles live in src/posts/ (some started on Medium; later posts are site-native)
• Added a Talks page, starting with the RubyConf 2026 lightning talk
• Applied slate + amber branding, ST monogram logo, and regenerated favicons
• Cleaned up stale starter content, demo posts, and unused data files
• Replaced the starter README with a project-specific one
• Tightened first-visit and repeat-visit performance (cache headers, image formats, less JS on every page)

Product checklist

Complete. Content (articles, /now, projects) lands as it comes.

• Fix the legal/imprint data path Done: rewritten as a lightweight legal notice with email contact
• Replace the default Open Graph image Done: subtitle updated, 11ty logo replaced with ST monogram on per-post cards
• Build a dedicated Projects page Done: data-driven via projects.yaml, live at /projects/
• Replace the interim Field Notes email CTA Done: links to the Buttondown publication
• Swap default fonts for something that fits the brand Done: Fraunces for headings, Atkinson Hyperlegible kept for body
• Decide whether to add supporting pages like Bookshelf, Uses, and Colophon Done: Colophon live at /colophon/, Bookshelf live at /bookshelf/, Uses skipped
• Add end-of-article cross-links so each post suggests the next click Done: articles now use curated related links
• Calm inner-page intros, four-item nav, and this site as the writing home Done
• Homepage as type under the pixel sky; Bookshelf/Projects off inline styles Done
• Update the colophon so it mentions the pixel sky and that the photo lives on /links/ Done
• Keep the homepage header usable after you scroll past the sky Done: it follows and switches to page colors past the hills
• Finish overlay menu access details (focus trap, restore focus, Close name) Done
• Bring the résumé into 2026 last (talk, volunteering, Ruby; drop the consulting one-pager voice) Done

Notes For Interested Folks

This site started from the Eleventy Excellent starter, but it has been steadily reshaped into a personal site with custom homepage content, a custom /now page, personal metadata, feed configuration, and project-specific content structure.

If you are browsing because you are interested in the site itself, the best places to start are:

• src/pages/index.njk
• src/pages/now.njk
• src/_data/meta.js
• src/_layouts/post.njk
• docs/site-voice.md

Credits

• Built on top of Eleventy Excellent by Lene Saile
• Inspired by the broader Eleventy, accessibility, and build-excellent-websites community