Why Astro
When starting a new personal blog, I compared a handful of static site generators and finally picked Astro. Three things decided it: internationalization is built into the framework, the learning curve is small, and the work is easy to hand to Claude Code.
Astro is built for content-driven sites, so articles live as plain Markdown under src/content/. Drop a file in and it becomes a page, which keeps the whole structure easy to hold in your head.
A minimal setup
This time I assembled the site from just these pieces:
- Content Collections (typed schema for managing posts)
- Native i18n routing (Japanese and English)
- Pagefind (client-side full-text search)
- Tailwind CSS v4
There is no server: the built static files are served as-is. The plan is to keep the monthly cost at zero.
What’s next
I started with two languages but kept the structure ready for a third. As I add posts, I’ll measure search quality and page speed for real.