From messy notes to a live, published site. No code. No templates. No monthly fees. You own everything.
Every website project begins the same way. You have scattered context, not a brief.
Barbara described her business across several calls. Raw, unstructured, full of gold. The conversation draws out things you would never think to write down.
Business plans, service lists, credential summaries. Scattered across emails and files. Not organised, but full of useful detail.
The Q&A extracts things you cannot get from a one-way description. Questions surface what matters. The back-and-forth is the real brief.
Years of expertise that sits in your head, not on a page. A structured conversation with Claude draws it out and turns it into content.
The conversation is the product. Back-and-forth draws out things you would never write in a document.
Simple, modern, free. Everything you need for a professional brochure site.
Total running cost: domain name only (~£10/year). Everything else is free.
Astro is the tool that turns your content into a website. Tailwind is what makes it look good. Neither requires you to know how to code.
A modern website framework that generates fast, static HTML pages. No server running in the background, no database to maintain. It takes your content and produces clean web pages that load quickly and cost nothing to host. Claude builds with Astro natively.
A styling system that gives you control over how things look, without writing traditional CSS. Spacing, colours, fonts, responsive layouts. Claude uses it fluently, so you can say "make the heading bigger" and it knows exactly what to change.
Next.js - more powerful, but more complex. Overkill for a brochure site. Better for apps and dynamic content.
Hugo / Jekyll - similar static approach, but less modern. Claude works better with Astro.
WordPress - the old standard. Needs hosting, plugins, security updates, ongoing maintenance. A whole job in itself.
Squarespace / Wix - easy, but you are renting. Monthly fees, limited control, cannot customise deeply, locked into their ecosystem.
We chose Astro + Tailwind because it is simple, Claude is excellent with it, and it produces sites that are fast, free to host, and fully yours.
Vercel is the service that takes your website files and puts them on the internet. Think of it as the bridge between your code and a live URL.
1. You tell Claude what to change in Cowork
2. Claude updates the files
3. You push to GitHub (one command or one click)
4. Vercel detects the change automatically
5. Your live site updates in under 60 seconds
Alternatives exist (Netlify, Cloudflare Pages, GitHub Pages) but Vercel is the smoothest experience and Claude knows it best.
Think of GitHub as a secure filing cabinet for every version of your website, ever.
Every file is stored independently of Claude, Cowork, or any AI tool.
You can see exactly what changed, when, and roll back if needed.
Vercel reads from GitHub. Push a change, your site updates automatically.
src/pages/index.astro
src/pages/about.astro
src/pages/services.astro
src/pages/sectors.astro
src/pages/contact.astro
src/components/Header.astro
src/components/Footer.astro
src/styles/global.css
You describe what you want. Claude builds it. You refine through conversation.
Describe the business, the audience, what pages you need, what action visitors should take.
It generates the full site structure, pages, navigation, styling, and content.
"Make the hero bolder." "Add a credentials section." "Change the colour." Plain English.
Files go to GitHub. Vercel auto-deploys. Live in under a minute.
For Barbara, we went from a blank screen to a five-page professional site in a single Cowork session. The back-and-forth conversation meant the site reflected her business, not a generic template.
"Add a testimonial section." "Move the CTA above the fold." You do not need to know what HTML or CSS means.
Change your mind about something? Tell Claude, push to GitHub, live in 60 seconds. No developer, no ticket, no waiting.
The code is yours. The hosting is yours. No subscription lock-in. No platform that can change its pricing or shut down.
The more Claude knows about your business, the better the output. Reference files, conversation history, brand guidelines. It compounds.
This is not magic. It is a tool. Knowing the edges makes you better at using it.
Claude produces clean, professional layouts, but it is not a graphic designer. You will get 80% of the way there. The last 20% takes some work.
Your first prompt rarely produces exactly what you want. The iteration is part of the process. 2-3 rounds of refinement is normal.
You cannot drag elements around like in Squarespace. You describe what you want and Claude interprets it. Sometimes that interpretation needs correcting.
DNS settings, Google Search Console, Analytics setup. These are manual. Claude in Chrome can help guide you through them, but they are not one-click.
Claude's default output is functional, not beautiful. Here is how to push it further.
Try it yourself: Anthropic publish a free front-end design skill you can install in Claude Code or Cowork. It teaches Claude modern design patterns, spacing, and typography. View on GitHub
Claude builds the structure and the content, but it cannot generate or source your photos. Here is what you need to know.
Team photos, headshots, product images. Claude will tell you exactly where to put them in your project folder, and what dimensions and format it needs (typically .jpg or .webp, specific pixel sizes per location).
Claude uses placeholder images while building. You can review the full layout and structure before sourcing any photos. Swap placeholders for real images when you are ready.
No professional headshot? PhotoAI generates realistic professional photos from a few selfies. Upload casual photos, get polished headshots back. Useful when you need something fast without booking a photographer.
Tip: When Claude builds your site, it will tell you the exact file path, dimensions, and format for each image. For Barbara's site, that meant dropping files into src/assets/ with specific names Claude had already referenced in the code.
Your site is live, but there are setup steps to make it properly discoverable.
Point your domain to Vercel. A few settings in your domain registrar. Claude can guide you step by step.
Verify ownership, submit your sitemap. This is how Google finds and indexes your pages.
Add tracking so you can see who visits, where they come from, and what they look at.
Astro generates a sitemap automatically. Submit it to Search Console so Google crawls your site properly.
Claude in Chrome can see what is on your screen and guide you through each of these steps. It is not one-click, but it is not hard either.
Barbara walks away with a site she owns and can update herself.
Barbara needs a Claude account with Cowork mode. This is her tool for making changes going forward.
Add Barbara as a collaborator or transfer ownership. She now has the source code.
Add her to the Vercel team or transfer the project. She controls deployment.
Open Cowork, describe what to change, push to GitHub, site updates. That is the whole workflow.
A brochure site is the starting point. Here is what becomes possible.
This week I had an asset management firm enquire about a Sprint. I built a decision-tree tool into my services page before sending the proposal. Custom functionality, not just content.
Write a blog post, case study, or landing page in Claude. Push to GitHub. Live on your site in under a minute. No CMS, no formatting fights, no copy-paste. The fastest path from idea to published.
Connect with Beehiiv or similar. Your site becomes the hub, your newsletter becomes distribution. The content flywheel.
I rebuilt Find a Training Provider (FATP) this exact way. A full marketplace site, rebuilt with Astro, managed through Claude, deployed on Vercel. The same approach works for a five-page brochure or a complex platform.
Tweak a service page before a meeting. Add a case study after a project. Update your pricing. All in natural language, live in minutes. No developer, no ticket, no waiting.
Blog section, landing pages for specific verticals, lead magnets, booking integrations. Start simple, add as you need it.
You do not need a perfect site. You need a live one. One you own, one you can change, and one that works for your business today.
Questions?