Week 1: Foundation & Launch

January 17, 2026

Overview

The first day of the AI Built This project focused on going from zero to a fully deployed, production-ready website — entirely through AI conversation and browser-based workflows.

What We Accomplished

1. Planning & Research

• Domain Research — AI researched available domains across multiple registrars
• Selected aibuiltthis.site — Chose .site extension for better storytelling ("AI Built This Site")
• Tech Stack Decision — Eleventy (11ty) + GitHub + GitHub Pages
• Strategic Choice — Browser-based development with no local tools

2. Domain & Infrastructure

• Purchased Domain — aibuiltthis.site from moreweb.nz (NZ$52.90)

• Created GitHub Repository — Set up version control and CI/CD
• Connected Services — Linked GitHub with browser-based workflow

3. Development

• Project Structure — Created 7 core files (config, styles, layouts)
• Design System — Built minimal black & white aesthetic
• 3 Pages Built — Homepage, Documentation, About Strawberry
• GitHub Actions — Configured automatic deployment workflow
• All Browser-Based — No terminal, no local Node.js, no git CLI

4. Deployment & Debugging

• Error 1 — Missing package-lock.json (✓ removed cache requirement)
• Error 2 — Package name typo – @J11ty/11ty → @11ty/eleventy (✓fixed)
• Successful Deploy — Site live at ideanwarwick.github.io/aibuiltthis/
• AI Autonomy — Analyzed error logs, identified root causes, executed fixes

5. DNS & Custom Domain

• 5 DNS Records — Configured 4 A records + 1 CNAME
• Pointed to GitHub Pages — aibuiltthis.site ‒ 185.199.108.153 (eal.)
• Enabled HTTPS — Secure connection via GitHub Pages
• Custom Domain Live — https://aibuiltthis.site/

6. Analytics & SEO

• Umami Analytics — Signed up and added tracking tag
• Public Dashboard — Shared analytics at cloud.umami.is
• robots.txt — Created for search engine crawling
• sitemap.xml — Generated for search engine indexing

Key Metrics

• Time: ~2.5 hours from start to live website
• Commits: 10 commits to GitHub repository
• Files: 8 files created (HTML, CSS, config, workflows)
• Pages Built: 3 complete pages with navigation
• Errors Debugged: 2 build failures resolved autonomously
• DNS Records: 5 records configured
• Cost: NZ$52.90 (domain only — all other services free)

Technical Achievements

• ✅ Zero Local Development — Everything built through browser interface
• ✅ Automatic CI/CD — GitHub Actions building and deploying on every commit
• ✅ Error Resolution — AI identified root causes and fixed build failures
• ✅ Complete Documentation — Every step tracked in real-time
• ✅ Production-Ready — Live website with custom domain

What's Unique

1. Fully Agentic — No manual coding, all through AI conversation
2. Browser-Only Workflow — No terminal, no local Node.js, no git CLI
3. Self-Documenting — Website documents its own creation
4. Error-Resilient — AI debugged and fixed issues autonomously
5. Transparent Process — Every commit visible in GitHub history

Lessons Learned

1. Browser-based development requires workflow adjustments — Standard CI/CD patterns assume local dev environment
2. AI can debug itself — Analyzed error logs, identified typos, executed fixes
3. Conversation > Code — Entire site built through natural language instructions
4. Version control = documentation — Commit history tells the complete story

Status: Week 1 Complete ✅

Next: Week 2 →