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Rebuild Keep/Drop Ledger — site → site-next (Astro 7 + astro-knots + LFM)

The Phase-0 ground truth for the ground-up rebuild: what the current site is made of, what survives into site-next/, what we retire — and the discipline that every retired thing gets its intention captured in context-v before its code is dropped.

Path
decisions/2026-08-03_Rebuild-Keep-Drop-Ledger.md
Authors
Michael Staton
Augmented with
Claude Code on Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context)
Tags
Decision · Rebuild · Astro-Knots · Deadweight · Knowledge-Graph · LFM

Rebuild Keep/Drop Ledger — site → site-next/

Why this document exists

We are not refactoring the current site — we are rebuilding it as site-next/ (a fresh Astro 7 scaffold inside this repo) on astro-knots conventions and the @lossless-group/lfm package, shedding accumulated deadweight, and doing it with test coverage, a real design system, and a component library. Execution runs as a green-per-phase loop with a gate at each phase boundary (autonomous within a phase, checkpoint between). Parity is keep-list-driven, core-first — deadweight never gets rebuilt.

The ledger’s governing principle (per MS): What is not in the keep-list was likely an intention. Anything we do not carry forward gets its intention documented in a context-v/ file before its code is dropped. Retiring code is retiring an idea; the idea is the durable artifact. See the Abandoned-Intentions-* notes in ../explorations/.

The three foundational decisions (locked 2026-08-03)

DecisionChoiceConsequence
Location / strategysite-next/ inside this repo; current site stays running as the parity referenceClean slate; nothing carries over unless it earns its place. Swap at parity.
Loop autonomyGreen-per-phase, gate at phase boundaryLoop runs a phase to green (build + tests + verify), commits locally, then stops for review.
Parity scopeKeep-list decides; core-firstRebuild verified-live surface first; port the long tail only where confirmed in use.

Method — how “deadweight” was established (reproducible)

Deadweight is graph signal ∩ grep confirmation, never graph alone.

  1. Graph (graphify 0.9.32, code-only AST over src/): 2281 nodes, 2334 edges, no import cycles. Output in graphify-out/ (graph.json, GRAPH_REPORT.md, graph.html). Rebuild after code changes with graphify update . (zero API cost).
  2. Orphan candidates: source files under src/components|layouts|utils with zero cross-file inbound edges, excluding entry points (src/pages/**, *.config.ts, *.d.ts, middleware). → 89 candidates.
  3. Grep confirmation: each candidate’s stem searched across all of src/ (imports, dynamic imports, string refs), excluding its own file. Zero hits → confirmed dead. Any hit → graph false-negative, keep. → 59 confirmed dead · 30 graph-missed (kept).

Caveat carried forward: graphify under-captures .astro→.astro imports (the 30 false-negatives prove it). The graph is a lead generator, not an oracle. No file is dropped on graph evidence alone; grep (or a build failure in site-next/) is the confirming rung.

DROP — 59 confirmed-dead files, grouped by retired intention

Each group links to (or will link to) an Abandoned-Intentions-* capture note. ✍️ = intention worth reviving later (gets a full note). 🧹 = pure scaffolding (gets a one-line mention in the group note, no revival value).

✍️ Tube visual — [[Abandoned-Intentions-Tube-Visual]]

  • src/components/basics/tube-attempts/TubeCSS.astro
  • src/components/basics/tube-attempts/TubeContainer.astro
  • src/components/basics/tube-attempts/TubeContainerSVG.astro
  • src/components/basics/tube-attempts/TubeContainerWebkit.astro

✍️ Web-studio hero direction — [[Abandoned-Intentions-WebStudio-Heroes]]

  • src/components/basics/HeroWebStudio.astro
  • src/components/basics/webstudio/Hero1.astro
  • src/components/basics/webstudio/Hero2.astro
  • src/components/basics/webstudio/Hero3.astro

✍️ Article preview / card system — [[Abandoned-Intentions-Article-Preview-System]]

  • src/components/articles/EntryListItemPreview--Narrow.astro
  • src/components/articles/EntryListItemPreview--Thumbs.astro
  • src/components/articles/EntryListItemPreview--Wide.astro
  • src/components/articles/EntryListItemReader.astro
  • src/components/articles/FeaturedArticle.astro
  • src/components/articles/PeekOnHover.astro
  • src/components/articles/PostCardBox.astro
  • src/components/articles/PostCardFeatureBox.astro
  • src/components/CompareCardRow.astro
  • src/components/basics/cards/Card--Mini.astro

✍️ Dedicated changelog reading experience — [[Abandoned-Intentions-Changelog-UI]]

  • src/components/changelog/ChangelogEntryPage.astro
  • src/components/changelog/ChangelogStats.astro
  • src/components/changelog/LeftSidebar.astro

✍️ Pre-LFM callout / MDX pipeline (SUPERSEDED by LFM) — [[Abandoned-Intentions-PreLFM-Markdown]]

  • src/components/markdown/MDXComponents.js
  • src/components/markdown/MDXProvider.astro
  • src/components/markdown/EmbedAstroSlides.astro
  • src/components/markdown/callouts/AsideCallout.astro
  • src/components/markdown/callouts/DetailsCallout.astro
  • src/components/markdown/callouts/styled/LLMResponse.astro
  • src/components/codeblocks/MermaidChartInline.astro
  • src/components/codeblocks/SimpleCodeBlock.astro

✍️ Home-grown frontmatter repair (LFM territory now) — [[Abandoned-Intentions-Frontmatter-Utils]]

  • src/utils/yamlFrontmatter.ts
  • src/utils/frontmatterCorruptionPatterns.cjs
  • src/utils/frontmatterIrregularityFilterReturnsValidFrontmatterOnly.ts

✍️ Trademark / logo-wall treatment — [[Abandoned-Intentions-Trademark-Ribbons]]

  • src/components/basics/ContrastingTrademarkRibbons.astro
  • src/components/basics/SimplifiedTrademarkRibbon.astro
  • src/components/basics/TrademarkGrid.astro

🧹 Retired scaffolding (no revival value) — [[Abandoned-Intentions-Retired-Scaffolding]]

  • src/components/basics/Button--Gradient.astro
  • src/components/basics/CardCarousel.astro
  • src/components/basics/CardRowSlider.astro
  • src/components/basics/ParticipantHandle.astro
  • src/components/content/ProjectGrid.astro
  • src/components/examples/AvatarExample.astro
  • src/components/projects/ProjectGallery.svelte
  • src/components/projects/WorkflowSteps.astro
  • src/components/projects/WorkflowSteps.svelte
  • src/components/projects/project-section-layouts/StorySidebarTreeNode.astro
  • src/components/tool-components/BareToolCardIsland.astro
  • src/components/tool-components/ToolCardAdmin.astro
  • src/components/tool-components/ToolCardIsland.astro
  • src/components/toolkit/TagFilterIsland.astro
  • src/layouts/CollectionStructure--OneColumn--Scroll.astro
  • src/layouts/ThreeColumnFrame.astro
  • src/utils/convertPageBacklinksToRelativePathHref.ts
  • src/utils/debug/markdown-debugger.ts
  • src/utils/markdown/debug/markdown-debugger.ts
  • src/utils/embedSiteWithOpenGraph.ts
  • src/utils/imageUtils.ts
  • src/utils/markdown/normalizeShellLangs.ts
  • src/utils/markdown/remarkNormalizeShellLangs.ts
  • src/utils/routePaths.ts

Known-dead by inspection (not from graph)

  • src/pages/toolkit/_timeline.astro.backup
  • src/pages/client/[client]/projects/_index.astro.disabled
  • src/actions/archive/** (self-named archive)

KEEP — surface confirmed live (to be rebuilt, not ported verbatim)

Rebuilt against the spec, LFM, and the design system — reimplemented, not copied.

  • Load-bearing core (highest inbound degree — treat as design pillars): src/utils/slugify.ts (getReferenceSlug 54, slugify 39, processEntries 33, toProperCase 26, transformContentPathToRoute 18), content.config.ts, envUtils.js, shikiHighlighter.ts, routeManager.ts, [...path].astro.
  • Structural anchors (community hubs): OneArticle.astro, Layout.astro, AstroMarkdown.astro, json-canvas.ts, TagFilterIsland.astro.
  • 30 graph-missed files (grep found refs) — provisional keep pending the route-level keep-list pass.

OPEN — still to inventory before the spec (Phase 0 remainder)

  • Routes: classify all 135 src/pages routes → live / dead / client-gated. Cross-check against output mode + middleware for the astro-knots “auth-gated routes must not be prerendered” rule while we’re in there.
  • Collections: which of the 34 defineCollections have live content + a live consumer. Drop-with-intention any that don’t.
  • Dependencies: trim the 73 prod deps to what site-next/ actually needs (LFM subsumes several markdown-pipeline deps).
  • Assets: src/ is 525M (937 images). Decide ImageKit/CDN vs in-repo per the astro-knots opengraph/asset guidance.

Phase plan (this ledger is the Phase-0 artifact)

PhaseOutputGate
0 — Keep-listthis ledger + Abandoned-Intentions-* notes + route/collection/dep classificationledger sign-off
1 — Specrebuild spec in context-v/specs/ (arch, @knots/* design system, LFM, test strategy, loop definition)spec sign-off
2 — Scaffoldsite-next/ Astro 7 + LFM + tokens + vitest + browser-drive runggreen scaffold
3…N — Loopfeature-slice rebuild: implement → test → browser-drive → changelog → commitgreen per phase
  • Prior art to absorb (design system half): content/lost-in-public/explorations/Multi-Site-Astro-Starter-Kit-Architecture.md — @knots/tokens|astro|svelte|brand-config, Storybook, Changesets, visual-regression testing.
  • Graph outputs: graphify-out/GRAPH_REPORT.md, graph.html.