The Experiment
What happens when you build an entire portfolio site through conversation with an AI? That’s what I set out to explore when I decided to build purav.ca using Claude Code as my primary development partner.
The Process
Building with Claude Code isn’t like using a code generator or template. It’s more like pair programming with someone who has read every documentation page you haven’t. Here’s what the process actually looked like:
Planning Phase
Before writing a single line of code, we spent time discussing:
- What the site needed to accomplish
- Which technology stack made sense for my goals
- How to structure the project for easy maintenance
- What “clean but not boring” actually means in practice
The planning conversation was arguably the most valuable part. Having to articulate my goals clearly enough for an AI to act on them forced me to think through decisions I might have otherwise made on autopilot.
Implementation
With a solid plan in place, implementation was surprisingly smooth. The key advantages:
- Consistency: Claude Code remembers the architectural decisions from earlier in the conversation and applies them throughout
- Speed: Boilerplate that would take hours to write manually gets generated in seconds
- Quality: TypeScript catches errors early, and the AI naturally writes accessible, semantic HTML
The CLAUDE.md File
One of the smartest decisions was creating a CLAUDE.md file at the project root. This file tells future Claude Code sessions everything they need to know about the project — structure, conventions, design system, and commands. It’s the highest-leverage file in any AI-assisted codebase.
What I Learned
- AI is a multiplier, not a replacement: The quality of the output is directly proportional to the quality of the input. Vague instructions produce generic results.
- Planning matters more than ever: When you can implement things quickly, the bottleneck shifts to knowing what to implement.
- TypeScript + AI is a superpower: The type system gives the AI guardrails, and the AI gives you speed. It’s a virtuous cycle.
What’s Next
This site is just the beginning. I plan to add interactive tools, data visualizations, and more content over time — all built with the same AI-assisted workflow. Stay tuned.