Dark Matter Site Specification

This document describes the core functionality and architecture of the matter-site (dark-matter) for porting to other Astro-Knots projects.

Overview

Dark Matter will be a minimal landing page site for a venture capital firm. The site is built with:

Astro 5.x (static output mode)
Smart use of CSS to separate custom theme settings from functionality.
Tailwind CSS v4 (via @tailwindcss/vite plugin)
Dark/Vibrant/Light mode theming with localStorage persistence. Dark and Light mode are standard, Vibrant mode assumes more color, gradients, animations, etc.
Responsive design with custom breakpoints
Dynamic OpenGraph content per page and even object/section shared.
SEO Best Practices that needs to be planned.
Use of Git Modules to bring content from other repositories for wider collaboration while maintaining the admin and privacy of various repositories.
Remark.js for markdown processing, with some advanced features requiring additional related libraries.
Svelte for more advanced interactivity and server side rendering where necessary.
ImageKit for image processing and delivery where necessary.
Reveal.js for presentation slides viewer.

Context of Astro-Knots

Astro-Knots is a collection of sites that are built with Astro, yet each site needs to be managed, collaborated on, and deployed independently. The parent-level monorepo is NOT a functional monorepo, but rather a common repository for sharing code, patterns, and making grabbing components and utilities easier.

Constraints

No use of React, Preact, JSX or TSX as an absolute rule.
Consistent use of and updating of documentation for context engineering to enable advanced use of AI Code Assistants such as Claude Code, Windsurf, and others.

Core Dependencies

{
  "dependencies": {
    "@astrojs/check": "latest",
    "@tailwindcss/typography": "latest",
    "@tailwindcss/vite": "latest",
    "astro": "latest",
    "tailwindcss": "latest",
    "typescript": "latest",
    "vitest": "latest"
  }
}

Optional:

masonry-layout - for portfolio grid layouts
vitest + @vitest/ui - for testing

Directory Structure

src/
├── components/
│   ├── basics/           # Core UI components
│   │   ├── Header.astro  # Main header with nav, CTA, mode toggle
│   │   ├── Footer.astro  # Footer with logo, social links
│   │   ├── buttons/      # Button variants (Primary, Secondary, Accent)
│   │   ├── chips/        # Tag/chip components
│   │   ├── grids/        # Logo grids, banner rows
│   │   ├── heros/        # Hero section variants
│   │   └── links/        # Link wrappers with animations
│   ├── ui/               # Utility UI components
│   │   ├── ModeToggle.astro           # Dark/light toggle button
│   │   ├── SiteBrandMarkModeWrapper.astro  # Logo with mode switching
│   │   ├── InternalLinkWrapper.astro  # Links with hover animations
│   │   └── SocialIcons.astro          # Social media icons
│   ├── seo/
│   │   └── OpenGraph.astro  # OG meta tags component
│   └── [feature-specific]/  # Events, facts, slides, etc.
├── layouts/
│   ├── BoilerPlateHTML.astro   # Base HTML structure
│   ├── BaseThemeLayout.astro   # Theme wrapper with Header/Footer
│   └── ResponsiveContainer.astro
│   └── sections/             # Reusable sections, generally refactored pages to make them more reusable.
├── pages/
│   ├── index.astro       # Homepage (minimal centered logo + tagline)
│   ├── about/            # About pages
│   ├── portfolio/        # Portfolio with [slug].astro dynamic routes
│   ├── team/             # Team with [slug].astro dynamic routes
│   ├── contact/          # Contact page
│   ├── thoughts/         # Blog with [slug].astro dynamic routes
│   ├── events/           # Events with [slug].astro dynamic routes
│   ├── slides/           # Slides with [slug].astro dynamic routes
│   ├── dataroom/         # Dataroom page with two options:
│   │   ├── index.astro   # Dataroom index page
│   │   └── [slug].astro  # Dataroom item page
│   │   ├── active-pipeline/   
│   │   │   ├── index.astro   # Active Pipeline index page
│   │   │   └── [slug].astro  # Active Pipeline item page
│   │   ├── diligence-materials/   
│   │   │   ├── index.astro   # Diligence Materials index page
│   │   │   └── [slug].astro  # Diligence Materials item page
├── styles/
│   ├── global.css        # Main entry: imports Tailwind + theme
│   └── nova-theme.css    # Theme variables (colors, typography)
├── utils/
│   └── mode-switcher.js  # Dark/light mode handling
└── content/              # Content collections (JSON/MD)
    ├── people/           # Team data
    ├── portfolio/        # Portfolio items
    └── events/           # Event content

Theming System

Theme Class

The site uses theme-matter class on <html> element combined with data-mode="dark|light".

CSS Variables (matter-theme.css)

Core color palette:

:root {
  /* Brand Colors */
  --yankee-blue: #1d2340;      /* Primary dark */
  --vulcan-blue: #0d1724;      /* Darker background */
  --madison-blue: #2d3a57;     /* Secondary dark */
  --lilly-white: #EBEBEB;      /* Primary light */
  --nova-cyan: #69e2e3;        /* Accent */
  --hippie-blue: #509cb5;      /* Secondary accent */
}

Light/Dark mode switching via CSS variables:

:root {
  --color-background: rgb(235 235 235);  /* lilly-white */
  --color-foreground: rgb(29 35 64);     /* yankee-blue */
  --color-primary: rgb(70 110 200);
  --color-accent: rgb(20 184 166);
  /* ... etc */
}

html[data-mode="light"] {
  --color-background: rgb(29 35 64);     /* yankee-blue */
  --color-foreground: rgb(235 235 235);  /* lilly-white */
  /* ... inverted values */
}

html[data-mode="dark"] {
  --color-background: rgb(29 35 64);     /* yankee-blue */
  --color-foreground: rgb(235 235 235);  /* lilly-white */
  /* ... inverted values */
}

html[data-mode="vibrant"] {
  --color-background: rgb(29 35 64);     /* yankee-blue */
  --color-foreground: rgb(235 235 235);  /* lilly-white */
  /* ... inverted values */
}

Typography

--font-family-primary: 'Inter', -apple-system, system-ui, sans-serif;
--font-family-secondary: 'Arboria', 'ITC Avant Garde Gothic', sans-serif;
--font-family-display: 'Arboria', 'ITC Avant Garde Gothic', 'Montserrat', sans-serif;
--font-family-mono: 'Fira Code', monospace;

Custom fonts loaded via @font-face in global.css:

ITC Avant Garde Gothic (TTF)
Arboria (WOFF2)

Mode Switching Implementation

1. Early initialization (BoilerPlateHTML.astro)

Prevents FOUC by setting data-mode attribute immediately:

<script is:inline>
  (function() {
    const savedMode = localStorage.getItem('mode');
    const mode = savedMode || 'dark';  // Default to dark
    document.documentElement.setAttribute('data-mode', mode);
    if (mode === 'dark') document.documentElement.classList.add('dark');
  })();
</script>

2. Mode Switcher Utility (src/utils/mode-switcher.js)

export class ModeSwitcher {
  getStoredMode()     // Get from localStorage
  getSystemPreference() // Always returns 'dark' (default)
  applyMode(mode)     // Sets data-mode attribute + .dark class
  toggleMode()        // Switches between light/dark
  storeMode(mode)     // Saves to localStorage
}

Global instance: window.modeSwitcher

3. Toggle Button (ModeToggle.astro)

Sun icon (visible in dark mode) -> click switches to light
Star icon (visible in light mode) -> click switches to vibrant
Moon icon (visible in vibrant mode) -> click switches to dark
Uses [data-theme-toggle] selector

4. Logo Switching (SiteBrandMarkModeWrapper.astro)

Renders both logo variants, CSS hides one based on mode:

<img src="/trademarks/trademark__Brand--Light-Mode.svg" class="light-logo" />
<img src="/trademarks/trademark__Brand--Dark-Mode.svg" class="dark-logo" />

Layout Hierarchy

BoilerPlateHTML.astro
  └── OpenGraph meta tags
  └── Font loading (Google Fonts + custom @font-face)
  └── Early mode initialization script
  └── <slot /> (page content)
  └── Mode switcher module import

BaseThemeLayout.astro
  └── Imports BoilerPlateHTML
  └── Imports global.css (Tailwind + theme)
  └── Header component
  └── <main> with <slot />
  └── Footer component

Header Component

Props:

interface Props {
  siteTitle?: string;
  navItems?: Array<{ text: string; href: string; isActive?: boolean }>;
  cta?: { text: string; href: string; variant?: 'primary' | 'secondary' | 'outline' };
}

Features:

Sticky positioning
Desktop nav with animated link underlines
CTA button with variants
Mode toggle button
Mobile hamburger menu with slide animation
Special behavior: On homepage, logo animates from center of page to header on scroll

Props:

interface Props {
  siteTitle?: string;
  logo?: { src: string; alt: string; width?: number; height?: number };
  description?: string;
  links?: Array<{ title: string; items: Array<{ text: string; href: string }> }>;
  socialLinks?: SocialLink[];
  copyright?: string;
}

Responsive Breakpoints

Custom breakpoints defined in global.css:

--breakpoint-monitor: 1536px;
--breakpoint-laptop: 1024px;
--breakpoint-tablet: 768px;
--breakpoint-mobile-xl: 640px;
--breakpoint-mobile-base: 480px;
--breakpoint-mobile-sm: 360px;

Utility classes:

.monitor-only - visible >= 1536px
.laptop-only - visible 1024-1535px
.tablet-only - visible 768-1023px
.mobile-only - visible < 768px

Public Assets

public/
├── fonts/
│   ├── arboria/           # Arboria font family (WOFF2)
│   └── itc-avant-garde-gothic/  # ITC Avant Garde (TTF)
├── trademarks/
│   ├── trademark__Brand--Dark-Mode.svg
│   ├── trademark__Brand--Light-Mode.svg
│   └── appIcon__Brand.png
├── share-banners/         # OG/social share images
├── headshots/             # Team photos
├── icons/                 # SVG icons
└── images/                # General images

Astro Configuration

// astro.config.mjs
export default defineConfig({
  site: 'https://example.com',
  base: '/',
  trailingSlash: 'ignore',
  devToolbar: { enabled: false },
  vite: {
    plugins: [tailwindcss()],
    resolve: {
      alias: {
        '@layouts': './src/layouts',
        '@components': './src/components',
        '@content': './src/content',
        '@sections': './src/layouts/sections'
      }
    }
  }
});

Pages to Implement (Minimal Core)

For porting, the essential pages are:

/ (index.astro) - Homepage with centered logo + tagline
/about/ - About page with company information
/portfolio/ - Portfolio listing
/portfolio/[slug].astro - Individual portfolio items

Optional sections from this site:

/team/ - Team page
/events/ - Events listing
/slides/ - Presentation slides viewer
/design-system/ - Component library showcase

Porting Checklist

Required Files to Copy/Adapt:

Layout System
- src/layouts/BoilerPlateHTML.astro
- src/layouts/BaseThemeLayout.astro
- src/layouts/ResponsiveContainer.astro
Core Components
- src/components/basics/Header.astro
- src/components/basics/Footer.astro
- src/components/ui/ModeToggle.astro
- src/components/ui/SiteBrandMarkModeWrapper.astro
- src/components/ui/InternalLinkWrapper.astro
- src/components/seo/OpenGraph.astro
Styles
- src/styles/global.css
- src/styles/matter-theme.css (rename and customize colors)
Utilities
- src/utils/mode-switcher.js
Configuration
- astro.config.mjs
- package.json dependencies
Assets
- Create brand logos (light + dark variants)
- Create app icon
- Create OG share banner

Customization Points:

Theme Colors: Edit src/styles/matter-theme.css to change:
- Primary colors (background/foreground)
- Accent colors
- Custom gradients
- Typography
Navigation: Edit Header.astro defaults:
- navItems array
- cta button text/link
Footer: Edit Footer.astro defaults:
- links array
- socialLinks array
- Copyright text
Branding: Update SiteBrandMarkModeWrapper.astro:
- Logo paths
- Alt text
Meta/SEO: Update BoilerPlateHTML.astro and page layouts:
- Default titles
- Descriptions
- Site URL
- OG images

Key Patterns

Tailwind v4 Integration

Uses @tailwindcss/vite plugin instead of PostCSS:

import tailwindcss from '@tailwindcss/vite';
// In vite.plugins: [tailwindcss()]

Global CSS imports Tailwind:

@import "tailwindcss";
@import "./matter-theme.css";

Dark Mode CSS Pattern

Always use both selectors for compatibility:

html[data-mode="dark"] .element,
html.dark .element {
  /* dark styles */
}

Component Props Pattern

All components use TypeScript interfaces for props with sensible defaults:

interface Props {
  variant?: 'primary' | 'secondary';
  class?: string;
  className?: string; // Backward compatibility
}

const { variant = 'primary', class: className = '' } = Astro.props;

dark-matter/specs/master__dark-matter-site-specification