arkashj.com — Open Work

Companion to HANDOFF.md. That doc explains how the site works; this one says what's left to ship. Updated 2026-04-26.

What's already shipped (so we don't re-do it)

• ✅ Apache 2.0 license, README, CHANGELOG, Dependabot, ESLint, Prettier, Husky, lint-staged, GitHub Actions CI, Vercel deploy, security headers
• ✅ Next.js 15 App Router + React 19 + TypeScript strict + Tailwind v3 + Geist fonts
• ✅ Pages: /, /about, /research, /experience, /projects, /work, /writing, /writing/[slug], /knowledge, /knowledge/[domain], /knowledge/[domain]/[slug], /media, /stack, /learnings, /architecture, /404
• ✅ Legacy redirects: /VC → /experience, /Volunteering → /about
• ✅ MDX content pipeline (next-mdx-remote/rsc) — 5 writing posts + 12 knowledge MDX files
• ✅ Embeds: Tweet, YouTube, LinkedIn, Substack, Gist (usable in MDX)
• ✅ SEO: Person JSON-LD, Article + ScholarlyArticle JSON-LD, native sitemap.ts + robots.ts, dynamic OG images per route, <link rel="me">
• ✅ Design system: navy palette, mint primary, warm-tan italic accent, sharp edges, infinite grid background, dark + light theme
• ✅ Animations: page entrance fade-up, stagger utility, dot-pulse, hover-lift cards
• ✅ Mobile nav (hamburger), theme toggle (sun/moon icon)
• ✅ Real public links: BioRxiv, JCB, JCP papers; Medium @arkjain; STU STREET podcast (4 YouTube embeds); Harvard lab page; PyTorch issue
• ✅ Real GitHub repos surfaced as projects (Raft, CloudComputing, NEXMARK, etc.)
• ✅ Architecture page: 6 React/SVG diagrams (replaced ASCII)
• ✅ Life Changelog with major-milestone visual emphasis
• ✅ HANDOFF.md (project orientation)

Live: latest production deploy at the Vercel-generated URL (check vercel ls). Currently deploys via Vercel GitHub integration on every push to main.

P0 — High value, near-term

1. Custom domain arkashj.com → Vercel

The codebase claims https://www.arkashj.com (sitemap, JSON-LD, OG images) but the live site is on a Vercel preview URL. SEO + canonical metadata + JSON-LD will all break until the domain points at the deployment.

Owner needs: DNS access at the domain registrar. Steps:

1. vercel domains add arkashj.com (or via Vercel dashboard → Project → Settings → Domains)
2. Add the A and/or CNAME records Vercel provides (typically cname.vercel-dns.com for www, 76.76.21.21 for the apex)
3. Wait for SSL provisioning (~minutes)
4. Confirm https://www.arkashj.com returns the latest build
5. (Optional) Add to LinkedIn, GitHub, Substack profile fields once live

Why P0: Everything SEO-related claims this URL. Without it the visa evidence hub is fragmented across vercel.app subdomains.

2. Submit sitemap to Google Search Console

• Verify the (custom) domain in Search Console
• Submit https://www.arkashj.com/sitemap.xml
• Run URL Inspection → Request Indexing on /, /about, /research
• Add the same to Bing Webmaster Tools

3. ffmpeg demo recordings for /work

The Work page lists 4 internal tools (Foundry CLI, RTK, Compound Engineering Skills, Excalidraw flows) but has no visuals. The README has the ffmpeg recipes already.

Steps:

1. Screen-record each tool (~30–60s loop showing the value)
2. Convert to WebM + MP4:

   ffmpeg -i recording.mov -c:v libvpx-vp9 -crf 30 -b:v 0 -an -vf "scale=1200:-2" public/demos/foundry/demo.webm
   ffmpeg -i recording.mov -c:v libx264 -crf 23 -an -vf "scale=1200:-2" public/demos/foundry/demo.mp4
   

3. Add a <video autoPlay muted loop playsInline> block per work card with both sources
4. Commit public/demos/<tool>/demo.{webm,mp4} and the markup change

4. Fill content gaps the audit flagged

Specific MDX articles that round out the body of work (suggested in the content scaffolding plan):

P1 — High value, larger scope

5. New surfaces still missing (visa hub completeness)

The site's stated O-1 goal calls for these surfaces. Each is a single typed array + page. The data model proposal lives in docs/superpowers/specs/2026-04-26-personal-website-revamp-design.md and the content scaffolding agent's output (in session history).

6. Replace /work placeholder with real demos

Once recordings exist (P0 #3), build a <WorkCard> variant that renders the video alongside copy. Currently work cards have no media at all.

7. Improve mobile typography

Hero stat labels still wrap awkwardly on narrow viewports (Harvard + BU becomes two lines). Either shrink, abbreviate, or use clamp().

P2 — Polish / nice-to-have

• Light mode polish. Theme works but accent contrast on light bg hasn't been visually audited end-to-end. Spot-check every page in light mode.
• Tailwind v4 upgrade. Defer until v4 is widely battle-tested; current v3 setup is fine.
• Search. A cmd+k searcher across writing + knowledge + experience would be powerful but is significant scope (consider Pagefind for static search).
• RSS for /writing. Trivial — generate app/writing/rss.xml/route.ts from getAllWritingPosts().
• View counts / analytics. Plausible or Vercel Analytics; client wants privacy-respecting + cookieless.
• Resume PDF. Generate a printable /resume page or upload a static PDF to public/resume.pdf linked from /about.

Known issues to be aware of

1. Pre-existing ESLint plugin warning during build: Error while loading rule '@next/next/no-img-element' ... in app/VC/page.tsx This does NOT fail the build (compile + page generation succeed). It's a known incompatibility between the ESLint plugin and the redirect-only page. Suppress with eslint-disable comment if it gets noisy.

2. Geist Mono substitution warning at build time on some content. Cosmetic; renders fine.

3. Edge runtime on /opengraph-image is reported as "disables static generation" — this is intentional; the home OG is dynamic on edge. Per-post OG images use nodejs runtime + generateStaticParams and DO prerender.

4. Vercel CLI deploy outputs URLs like arkashj-XXXX-benmore-technologies.vercel.app. The aliased canonical is arkashj-com.vercel.app until a custom domain is connected.

Common operations cheatsheet

# Local dev
npm run dev

# Production build (must pass before push)
npm run build

# Format + lint
npm run format
npm run lint

# Deploy to Vercel production manually (Vercel bot also deploys on every main push)
vercel deploy --prod --yes

# Check deployment status
vercel ls --yes | head -5

# Add a new MDX writing post
echo '---\ntitle: "..."\ndate: "2026-MM-DD"\ntags: ["AI"]\ndescription: "..."\n---\n\nbody' > content/writing/my-post.mdx
# (then commit; sitemap + writing index pick it up automatically)

# Branch flow (preferred)
git checkout -b feat/short-name
# ...edit...
git add -A
HUSKY=0 git commit -m "feat(scope): one-line"  # HUSKY=0 only if pre-commit blocks unrelated lint warnings
git push -u origin feat/short-name
gh pr create --base main --head feat/short-name --title "..." --body "..."
gh pr merge --squash --delete-branch
git checkout main && git pull --ff-only

Decisions deferred for later

Where to look when stuck