Every few years I hit a wall with my portfolio. Not because the projects changed, but because the way I present my thinking does.
Version 3 was clean — a dark single-page layout with a floating nav, cards for each project, and a PDF CV link. It did the job. But it felt like a brochure, not a conversation.
What changed
The idea for v4 started with a question: what if instead of a visitor reading about me, they could ask me things directly? Not a chatbot bolted on top of a static site — the AI agent IS the interface.
The hero is a framed chat panel. You can ask about my stack, my ML work, whether I'm open to remote roles. The answers are canned for now but the interaction pattern is real: you navigate by curiosity, not by scrolling past sections you don't care about.
The stack
- Next.js 15 with App Router and server components for the shell
- Strapi v5 as the CMS — all content (projects, career, skills) lives there
- CSS custom properties for the plum/light theme system, no Tailwind for design tokens
- Space Grotesk + JetBrains Mono — the typographic pairing that defines the feel
The design decisions that mattered
The sidebar layout was the hardest call. Fixed left panel with the agent chat on the right forces a hierarchy: identity first, conversation second. It also gives the scroll animation room to breathe — the shell expands as you scroll past the hero.
The plum dark theme is intentional. Most developer portfolios are either stark white or generic dark gray. Plum reads as opinionated without being loud.
What's next
The agent responses will eventually hit a real API. The blog (this section) was the last piece — I wanted a place to write about process, not just ship products.
If you're reading this and want to talk — the Contact section is one scroll away.