I Open Sourced the Complete Playbook for Building a Website With Soul
the trilogy is complete
I pushed website-with-soul to GitHub today. it's the third and final repo in a trilogy that started with methodology, moved to infrastructure, and ends with the product.
recursive-drift was the operating system for thinking with AI. how to use Claude Code as a collaborator without losing your voice. six states, a self-reading feedback loop, zero API keys.
context-handoff-engine was the plumbing. 6 layers of context infrastructure so Claude Code doesn't start every session from zero. parallel-safe handoffs, structured memory, self-improvement loops.
website-with-soul is where it all lands. everything in the first two repos exists to make this one work. build a real website that sounds like you, ranks in search, feeds AI systems, and compounds over time.
what's in it
two things.
a working starter template. clone it, run npm install && npm run dev, and you have a site in 15 minutes. dark terminal aesthetic, markdown blog, AI chat widget with keyword RAG, PostHog analytics with proxy pattern, sitemap with AI crawler allowlist, OG image generation, RSS feed, security headers. all on Next.js 15 with Tailwind v4.
a 32-chapter playbook. four phases covering the full arc from empty directory to content machine.
phase 1 is the build. 11 chapters walking through every file in the starter template. setup, blog system, chat widget, analytics, sitemap, OG images, RSS, security headers, performance, deploy, Claude Code setup.
phase 2 is giving it soul. voice DNA, anti-slop patterns, content filing, blog workflow, multi-platform distribution, SEO pipeline. this is the part most people skip and it's the part that matters most.
phase 3 is growing organically. distribution matrix, Reddit strategy (with the GEO thesis on AI-indexed content), LinkedIn builder voice, X thread format. no paid ads. your website is the hub, social platforms are distribution channels.
phase 4 is scaling. monorepo upgrade, autonomous blog pipeline, cron automation, Claude Code agent systems, Cloudflare Pages migration.
the stack costs almost nothing
| tool | cost |
|---|---|
| Next.js 15 | free |
| Tailwind CSS v4 | free |
| Vercel | free |
| Cloudflare | ~$10/year (domain only) |
| PostHog | free |
| Claude Code | ~$200/month |
$10/year for a domain. everything else is either free or optional. the Claude Code subscription is the only real cost and you're probably already paying for it.
the part people get wrong
everyone says "build in public." almost nobody talks about owning the infrastructure.
you can post on LinkedIn every day for a year and build a real audience. LinkedIn changes the algorithm. your reach drops 60% overnight. you built on rented land.
the website is the thing you own. every blog post compounds. every page gets indexed. every AI crawler (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot) consumes your content and starts referencing you as a source. that's the GEO thesis from the playbook. you're not just optimizing for Google anymore. you're optimizing for the AI systems that are replacing Google.
the social platforms are distribution channels. they drive traffic back to the thing you own. the website.
why I built this in the open
three sites run on this exact stack. shawnos.ai, thegtmos.ai, thecontentos.ai. same codebase, same playbook, same voice system. the starter template is extracted directly from production code.
I could have kept this proprietary. made it a paid course or a SaaS product. but the whole thesis of recursive-drift is that the methodology improves by being shared. the more people who use it and push back on it, the better it gets.
so it's MIT licensed. use it however you want.
getting started
three paths depending on how deep you want to go.
15 minutes. clone the starter, customize the content, deploy to Vercel. you have a website.
1 hour. follow the Phase 1 playbook. you understand every file and have it live with a custom domain.
1 day. work through all 4 phases. by the end you have a content machine with a voice system, distribution pipeline, and SEO strategy.
the repo is at github.com/shawnla90/website-with-soul.
the builder challenge
I'm trying something new. if you've been thinking about building your own site and you're somewhere on the Claude Code progression... I'll guide you through it.
the playbook has 32 chapters. the starter template gets you deployed in 15 minutes. but building alone is slower than building with someone who already shipped three sites on this stack.
so here's the offer. clone the repo, build your site with Claude Code, and reach out when you get stuck. I'll help you debug the weird parts, review architecture choices, and get it live. once it's deployed, I'll link to it from shawnos.ai and share it across my platforms.
then we do the same for the next builder. and the next.
a backlinking network of builder sites. not a link exchange. a community of people who built something real and promote each other's work because they've seen each other's code.
the first few sites in the network get the most direct support from me and the most visibility. early builders help shape what the network becomes.
r/GTMBuilders is where the building happens. 120 people doing collaborative, honest work. small enough that everyone actually ships. the energy is different because talking about building and actually building are not the same thing, and this group does the second one.
I don't know how this scales. that's the honest answer. but I know the first version of anything only gets built by the people willing to start before it's figured out.
if you want in, fork the repo. build the site. post in r/GTMBuilders when you're live. I'll find you.
no gatekeeping. the whole thing is in there.