Dream Big. Live joyfully. Design a life you love.

CLAUDE.md

This file provides guidance to Claude Code (claude.ai/code) when working with code in this repository.

Running the site locally

The site runs via Docker using a GitHub Pages-compatible Jekyll image:

docker-compose up

The site is then available at http://localhost:4001. The _site/ directory is the build output — never edit files there directly.

Architecture

This is a Jekyll static site. Key directories:

  • _posts/YEAR/ — blog posts, one subdirectory per year
  • _layouts/ — page templates (post, default, home, tag_page, no_sidebar, landing_page, redirect)
  • _includes/ — reusable partials
  • _data/navigation.json — drives the entire site navigation including submenus
  • _tag_pages/ — one .md file per tag; required for tag pages to be generated
  • _config.yml — site config, permalink structure (/posts/:title.html), pagination

Writing a new blog post

Create _posts/YEAR/YYYY-MM-DD-post-slug.markdown with this front matter:

---
layout: "post"
title: "Post Title Here"
description: "150-160 character keyword-rich summary of the post."
image: /i/YEAR/header-image.jpg
tags:
  - "2026"        # year tag always required
  - tag-name      # must match a file in _tag_pages/
affiliate: true   # only add if post contains affiliate links
---

Standard post structure:

  1. Centered header image: <center><img src='/i/YEAR/filename.jpg' alt='...'></center>
  2. Body content mixing Markdown and HTML
  3. AI disclosure line (if AI-assisted): And yes - I used Claude to help me write this post. It felt only right to practise what I preach.
  4. Italic closing question to readers: <i>Question for readers...</i>
  5. Share buttons: `

Enjoyed this post? Share it!

`

  1. Email sign-up include: `

Join Corinna's newsletter!

Want to be first to hear about Corinna’s favourite finds?
All the freebies, offers and deals she finds get shared in her Newsletter. Want in? Sign up here…

`

  1. Previous & Next post links
  2. Ad include: ` ConvertKit

`

Note: Pinterest pin images are no longer included in posts. Pins are batch-created separately after multiple posts are published.

SEO requirements

Every post must have:

  • description in front matter: 150-160 characters, keyword-rich, no em dashes
  • image in front matter: path to the header image (enables OpenGraph sharing)
  • Title leading with searchable keywords
  • Subheadings (H3s) containing relevant keywords where natural
  • Descriptive, keyword-relevant image alt text

Do a final SEO check before publishing any post.

Publishing rules

  • NEVER use git add _posts/ or git add -A _posts/ broadly — always stage post files individually by full path to avoid accidentally publishing drafts
  • When editing many existing posts at once, git add -u _posts/ is safe as it only stages modifications to already-tracked files and will never pick up untracked drafts
  • Before publishing, rename the file to today’s date (e.g. 2026-03-22-slug.markdown) even if the draft was started earlier
  • NEVER push a NEXT post link until the post it links to is also published
  • Add the NEXT link to the previous post at the same time as publishing the new post

Writing style

  • Do not use em dashes (—); use hyphens (-) instead
  • Prefer commas or brackets over hyphens when structuring sentences

Images go in i/YEAR/ for post images and i/ads/ for ad banners.

Adding a new tag

Every tag used in a post’s front matter needs a matching file in _tag_pages/. To add a new tag (e.g. “ai for life design”):

Create _tag_pages/ai for life design.md:

---
layout: tag_page
title: ai for life design
---

The tag_page layout automatically lists all posts with that tag.

Updating navigation

Edit _data/navigation.json. The structure supports up to three levels of nesting (submenu within submenu). Each entry has title and url; add a submenu array for dropdown items.

Key includes reference

  • ` ConvertKit

` — renders an ad by ID (IDs defined in _includes/advert.html)

  • `

Join Corinna's newsletter!

Want to be first to hear about Corinna’s favourite finds?
All the freebies, offers and deals she finds get shared in her Newsletter. Want in? Sign up here…

` — newsletter sign-up embed (Mastermind platform)

  • `

Enjoyed this post? Share it!

` — share buttons (Pinterest, Facebook, WhatsApp)

  • `<div class="youtube">

</div> ` — embeds a YouTube video

  • `<div class="youtube">

</div> ` — embeds a Vimeo video

Affiliate posts

Adding affiliate: true to front matter automatically:

  • Adds “Ad – Contains affiliate links and previous paid partnerships” at the top of the post
  • Adds an affiliate disclosure note at the bottom of the post content