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Articles on Astro, web performance, design systems, and building with Astro Rocket.

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Getting Started with Astro Rocket — From Install to Live in Minutes

How to install, configure, and deploy Astro Rocket — covering site.config.ts, brand colours, navigation, writing posts, and deploying to Vercel.

Cowfly Hans Martens
1 min read
astro-rocket getting-started configuration vercel

Astro Rocket Configuration — Every Toggle, Theme, and Layout Option Explained

A complete walkthrough of Astro Rocket's configuration options: 12 colour themes, OKLCH colours, typography, radius and shadow tokens, header styles, dark mode, and more.

Cowfly Hans Martens
2 min read
astro-rocket configuration customization themes

All posts

Comments on Blog Posts — Giscus, Lazy-Loaded

Astro Rocket now has optional comments on blog posts, powered by Giscus and GitHub Discussions. The script is lazy-loaded so readers who don't scroll to the bottom pay zero cost.

Cowfly Hans Martens
2 min read
astro-rocket features blog comments giscus

Independent Footer Menu — Different Links in Header and Footer

Astro Rocket now lets you configure the footer menu independently of the header navigation. Add a Privacy link, an Imprint, or a Cookie Policy without cluttering your main nav.

Cowfly Hans Martens
2 min read
astro-rocket features footer navigation

Table of Contents — Reading Anchors for Long Posts

Astro Rocket renders an optional table of contents on blog posts in three layouts: inline card, sticky sidebar, or both. Pick the one that fits your audience.

Cowfly Hans Martens
2 min read
astro-rocket features blog navigation

System, Light, Dark — How Astro Rocket's Colour-Mode System Works

A 3-state colour-mode system with no flash, live OS-preference tracking, and a pill dropdown that respects what the user actually picked. Here is how it is built.

Cowfly Hans Martens
2 min read
astro-rocket dark-mode design-system ux tutorial

Animations in Astro Rocket — How the Premium Motion Design Works

A deep dive into every animation layer in Astro Rocket: the spring-curve hero entrance, staggered cascades, scroll-reveal, and how it all stays smooth without a JS animation library.

Cowfly Hans Martens
2 min read
astro-rocket animation css ux performance

57 Components Ready to Use — Astro Rocket's Full UI Library

Astro Rocket ships with 57 production-ready components from the Velocity library — buttons, cards, dialogs, forms, data display, and full page-structure components. All accessible, all themed.

Cowfly Hans Martens
2 min read
astro-rocket components ui velocity

SEO in Astro Rocket: What's Built In and How to Configure It

Astro Rocket handles structured data, Open Graph, canonical URLs, sitemaps, and more out of the box. Here's exactly what ships and where to configure it.

Cowfly Hans Martens
2 min read
astro-rocket seo structured-data tutorial configuration

Hero Scroll Indicator — Desktop-Only, Hides on Scroll

Astro Rocket's hero has an animated scroll indicator: two bouncing chevrons that fade in after the hero animation and disappear the moment you start scrolling. Here's how every part of it works.

Cowfly Hans Martens
2 min read
astro-rocket features ux animation

Scroll Progress Ring — A Circular Indicator on the Back-to-Top Button

Astro Rocket's back-to-top button now has a circular SVG progress ring that fills as you scroll. It's brand-coloured, theme-aware, and runs entirely in CSS and a small inline script.

Cowfly Hans Martens
2 min read
astro-rocket features ux animation

Contact Form Setup: Resend, Vercel, and GoDaddy Step by Step

Astro Rocket's contact form is wired up but needs three things to actually deliver email: a Resend account, a verified domain, and one environment variable on Vercel.

Cowfly Hans Martens
2 min read
astro-rocket tutorial email vercel deployment

Scroll Progress Bar — Reading Progress at a Glance

Astro Rocket now has a scroll progress bar: a thin brand-coloured line that fills as you scroll. Here's how it works, where it lives, and how to enable it on any page.

Cowfly Hans Martens
2 min read
astro-rocket features header ux

How Astro Rocket's Design System Works — Tokens, Colors, and Dark Mode

Astro Rocket uses a three-tier token architecture with OKLCH colors. Change one value and the entire site updates. Here's how it works and how to make it yours.

Cowfly Hans Martens
2 min read
astro-rocket design-system tailwind customization tutorial

The Hero Typing Effect in Astro Rocket — How It Works and How to Tune It

Astro Rocket's hero headline cycles through words with a typing animation. Learn how it works, how to tune every speed and pause, and how to disable it entirely.

Cowfly Hans Martens
2 min read
astro-rocket components customization tutorial javascript

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