Behind the build
The tools and services that power Valeon, from the Astro framework to accessibility-focused typography.
The foundation that serves every page, keeps builds fast, and deploys updates with confidence.
Our core web framework. Astro delivers fast, content-driven pages with partial hydration, letting us ship minimal JavaScript by default.
Static typing stretches from Astro components to content utilities, catching bugs before they reach production and documenting intent as we code.
Hosting, analytics, and performance insights run on Vercel. Deploy previews make it easy to test changes before they reach production.
Design systems and typography that keep the site legible, adaptive, and expressive.
Tailwind gives us utility-first styling, while daisyUI supplies accessible, theme-aware components that match the site's visual language.
Iconography throughout the experience comes from Font Awesome, giving us a consistent visual vocabulary for navigation and utilities.
GLightbox powers the responsive lightbox experience for in-post figures, letting readers preview enlarged diagrams without leaving the essay.
A dyslexia-friendly typeface option is built into the UI, improving readability for visitors who rely on specialized typography.
MathJax renders TeX and MathML content with pixel-perfect consistency, keeping equations sharp across the site while staying framework-agnostic.
Speech Rule Engine translates MathML into descriptive speech so assistive tech can read aloud the equations featured in each article.
Workflow tooling that handles newsletters, version control, and continuous delivery.
Source control and collaboration live on GitHub. Issues, pull requests, and automation keep the project maintainable and transparent, while long-form posts are tracked in a dedicated repository that the site consumes as a submodule.
Our newsletter automation platform. Buttondown powers campaign scheduling, subscriber management, and the lightweight embeddable form featured across the site.
Formspree processes submissions from the contact page, giving us a reliable serverless inbox without maintaining custom backend infrastructure.
Durable object storage keeps narrated audio editions and supporting assets available globally without egress fees or custom storage servers.
Voice synthesis now runs on OpenAI TTS using the `tts-1-hd` model with the `onyx` voice, producing narrated editions of each essay while keeping the workflow fully automated.
Montreal Forced Aligner matches transcript text to the podcast narration, supplying precise timestamps that keep captions and audio highlights in sync.
The knowledge base and drafting environment that shape essays before they reach the site.
Research and drafting happen in Obsidian. Its markdown-first knowledge base helps structure long-form ideas before they become published essays.
Tools that enrich the narrated editions with interactive controls and visual feedback.
Creates the interactive waveforms that replace standard range inputs across the audio player, letting readers scrub with a stylized visualization that matches the site theme.
Under the hood you'll also find integrations like Astro MDX for rich longform content, Partytown for third-party script isolation, and Prettier tooling to keep the codebase consistent. If you're curious about anything in particular, feel free to reach out.
