Homepage Architecture
A detailed walkthrough of the architecture powering my personal academic homepage. The site runs as a single server-side process: FastAPI 0.115.8 renders HTML directly with Jinja2 templates, vanilla JS (no React, no build step) provides all client-side interactivity, and Markdown files in content/ are the sole data source — there is no database. This article was substantially revised on 2026-06-14 to reflect the post-migration architecture: the site was previously a hybrid Next.js + FastAPI split, and the Next.js layer has been removed entirely. We cover the request flow, module layout, template and JS component system, mtime-based caching, auth and security model, the liquid-glass and lightfield visual effect engines, and the systemd + Nginx deployment on a 2-core / 1.7 GB Debian 12 box.
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