162 lines
9.2 KiB
Markdown
162 lines
9.2 KiB
Markdown
# Unique
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A small blog about delightful, unique things — products, apps, phenomena, oddities.
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Built with [Astro](https://astro.build) + MDX.
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## Key features
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- **Four-collection pipeline**: `find` (captured items, hidden from indexes), `bundles` (editorial roundups that reference find slugs in a grid), `reviews` (full-length, sometimes graduated from a find), `posts` (generic essays)
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- **Autonomous daily pipeline** under `.claude/skills/`: `daily-pipeline` (the unattended chain: capture → bundle → review graduation → pick of the day → build → commit → push → digest); `daily-finds` (sweeps every source in `sources.json`, writes one find file per qualifying item, marks a ranked shortlist of up to 12, adds Amazon links for matched physical products, and self-maintains `sources.json`); `build-bundle` (thematic bundle from the find pool; `auto` and `weekly` catch modes); `cluster-bundles` (batch-clusters the find pool into multiple bundles); `build-review` (graduates a find to a full review with a mandatory fact-check in auto mode, linking the two via `fromFind` / `promotedTo`)
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- **Pick of the day** driven by `src/data/pick.json` (falls back to the latest review) — the homepage hero is a one-line content edit, also settable from the dev-mode button on any review page
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- **Sources catalog** at `sources.json` with per-source fetch strategy (`feed` / `webfetch` / `curl` / `skip`, feeds preferred) and the `/sources` page rendering a 3-column card stream with a "Recent finds" sub-list per card
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- **Strict find visibility**: find items are reachable only via the bundles that reference them, the `/sources` cross-reference, or direct URL — they don't crowd the home feed, tag pages, or category pages
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- **Backlinks** computed at build time: each find page lists every bundle that references it; promoted finds show a forward link to the review; reviews show a "← First surfaced…" backlink to their originating find
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- **Newspaper-style masthead** on every page: live entry-count + last-updated stats on the left, large serif "Unique" wordmark centered between thin rules, About/Blog nav on the right; per-page italic subheader ("A small log of delightful things.") with last-updated date on listing pages
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- **Pinterest-style home page**: hero card for the latest review plus a 3-column masonry grid of remaining reviews with a "Load more" reveal; old plain-list home preserved at `/index3/`
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- **Unified chronological feed** at `/index3/` across reviews + bundles + posts
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- **SEO-friendly site footer** with Browse / Collections (live counts) / About link columns and a centered legal line; consistent 76rem page width across the entire site (article prose constrained to a comfortable reading measure inside the wider layout)
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- Reviews render as two-line index entries: bold name + muted subtitle (`Cotypist` / *Autocomplete that lives everywhere on your Mac*)
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- Auto-generated `/categories/<name>/` and `/tags/<name>/` listing pages — finds excluded by design
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- **Amazon affiliate handling** in `src/lib/affiliate.ts`: outbound links to Amazon (`amazon.com`, `amzn.to`, `a.co`, `smile.amazon.com`) get the configured tracking ID appended automatically; the link gets `rel="sponsored"`, an "Affiliate" badge appears next to it, and a one-line disclosure is shown beneath. Finds and reviews also take an optional `amazonLink` frontmatter field (canonical `/dp/<ASIN>` form) rendered as an "Also on Amazon" link — the capture pipeline populates it when a shortlisted physical product has an exact Amazon match. Add additional marketplace IDs (e.g. `amazon.co.uk`) to the `AMAZON_TAGS` map when needed
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- **SEO surface**: single `<SEO>` component owning canonical, Open Graph, Twitter Card, and JSON-LD; per-page structured data (`Review`, `BlogPosting`, `Product`, `Article`, `CollectionPage`, `ItemList`, `BreadcrumbList`, `WebSite`, `Organization`); auto-generated `sitemap-index.xml` (excludes `/grid/` and `/index3/`); RSS feed at `/rss.xml`; `robots.txt`; static OG image fallbacks under `/public/og/`; promoted finds canonical to their review
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- Custom 404 page with recent-reviews and navigation fallback
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- Light/dark mode via `prefers-color-scheme`
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- **Cloudflare Web Analytics** beacon in `BaseLayout.astro` for cookieless, privacy-preserving page-view + referrer + Core Web Vitals tracking scoped to `unique.rzen.dev`
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- Otherwise no client-side framework — only the inline theme bootstrap and the analytics beacon
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- Static build, deployable anywhere
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## Local development
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```bash
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npm install
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npm run dev # local dev server
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npm run build # type-check + static build to ./dist
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npm run preview # serve the built site
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```
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## Adding a review
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Each review is a folder with `index.mdx` plus its media. The folder name is the slug:
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```
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src/content/reviews/cotypist/
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├── index.mdx # the article + frontmatter
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├── hero.mp4 # web-ready variants live here, alongside the article
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├── screenshot.png
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└── source/ # heavy originals (archival; never bundled)
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└── hero.gif
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```
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`index.mdx` frontmatter:
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```mdx
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---
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name: "Cotypist"
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subtitle: "Autocomplete that lives everywhere on your Mac"
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date: 2026-05-03
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category: writing
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tags: [macos, productivity]
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link: https://cotypist.app/ # optional product URL
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linkText: "Visit in App Store" # optional; defaults to the link's hostname (sans `www.`)
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description: "Optional <meta> override; defaults to subtitle."
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---
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Body in markdown / MDX. You can import and use components here.
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```
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The folder name becomes the URL at `/reviews/<slug>/`. Media is referenced relatively:
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```mdx
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import demo from './hero.mp4';
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<video src={demo} autoplay loop muted playsinline preload="metadata" />
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```
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Review heroes are auto-discovered: name the file `hero.<ext>` (any of png/jpg/jpeg/gif/webp/avif, or `hero.mp4` for video) and the home/grid tiles pick it up — no registration. Only assets with non-`hero` filenames need an explicit entry in the `overrides` map in `src/lib/hero.ts`.
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## Media
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Prefer real screenshots, GIFs, or short clips from the app's own site (downloaded locally — don't hotlink). Pair with a short italic caption that names what's being shown. Visuals should illustrate the virtue of the product, not decorate the page.
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**Source vs published media.** Heavy originals live in `<slug>/source/`; web-ready variants live at `<slug>/<file>` and are what the site actually ships. Files inside `source/` aren't imported anywhere, so Astro doesn't bundle them into `dist/`. To add or replace a video:
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```bash
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# 1. drop the original into source/
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mv ~/Downloads/demo.mp4 src/content/reviews/<slug>/source/
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# 2. encode a smaller web variant alongside (h264 CRF 28, ≤1280px, no audio)
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ffmpeg -i src/content/reviews/<slug>/source/demo.mp4 \
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-c:v libx264 -preset slow -crf 28 \
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-movflags +faststart -pix_fmt yuv420p \
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-vf "scale='min(1280,iw)':-2,crop=trunc(iw/2)*2:trunc(ih/2)*2" \
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-an src/content/reviews/<slug>/demo.mp4
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# 3. reference ./demo.mp4 from index.mdx or src/lib/hero.ts
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```
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For animated GIFs, use the same recipe with `crf 26` and source `.gif` — the resulting MP4 is typically 5–15× smaller.
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## Adding a post (essay)
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Create a folder + `index.mdx` under `src/content/posts/<slug>/`:
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```mdx
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---
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title: "Some essay title"
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date: 2026-05-10
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category: writing
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tags: [meta, opinion]
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description: "Optional <meta> tag override."
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---
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Body in markdown / MDX.
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```
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The folder name becomes the URL at `/posts/<slug>/`. Drop any media (images, screenshots) next to `index.mdx` and reference them as `./image.png`. Same convention applies to the `find/` and `bundles/` collections — each entry is a folder with `index.mdx` and any sibling media.
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## Project layout
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```
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src/
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content.config.ts # collection schemas (reviews, posts, find, bundles)
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content/
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reviews/<slug>/
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index.mdx # article + frontmatter
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<media files> # web-ready variants (hero, screenshots, demos)
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source/ # archival originals (not bundled)
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find/<year>/<month>/<slug>/
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index.mdx # find folders are bucketed by capture date
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hero.{jpg,png,gif,webp} # auto-resolved by src/lib/find-hero.ts; URLs stay flat at /find/<slug>/
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bundles/<slug>/index.mdx # editorial roundups (text intro + grid)
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posts/<slug>/index.mdx # essays
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lib/
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entries.ts # getAllEntries() — unified feed across collections
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components/
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EntryList.astro # shared two-shape entry list
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layouts/
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BaseLayout.astro
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pages/
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index.astro # Pinterest-style home (hero + masonry)
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index3.astro # plain chronological list view
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about.astro # About page
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blog.astro # /posts index (essays)
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grid.astro # full grid of every review
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sources.astro # source catalog
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reviews/[...slug].astro
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posts/[...slug].astro
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categories/[category].astro
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tags/[tag].astro
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public/
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favicon.svg
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```
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## Adding a new content type
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1. Define the collection in `src/content.config.ts`.
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2. Extend the `Entry` union and `getAllEntries()` in `src/lib/entries.ts` so the new type joins the merged feed.
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3. Add a detail route at `src/pages/<type>/[...slug].astro`.
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Listing pages (index, categories, tags) need no changes — they consume `getAllEntries()`.
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