Spawn

Changelog

What we shipped

Recent work on spawnapp.org — product pages, clean URLs, waitlist, and the analytics that keep shipping honest.

  1. Build — galleries that fit the business, friendlier “Why choose us”

    “Add a gallery” on /build now makes captioned tiles that match what you do — a bakery gets sourdough, croissants, and custom cakes; a salon gets cuts, color, and bridal — with built-in pattern art in your accent color instead of “Project 1–6” placeholders. Nothing is hotlinked, so nothing breaks. Name your own (“add a gallery of wedding cakes, cupcakes and macarons”) and those become the captions. “Why choose us” fits the kind of business and reads “Talk to a real person.” Older builds are tidied up automatically when opened.

  2. Build chat — your details go on the page, not sample filler

    Type real details into Build chat on /build and they land where visitors look: “our hours are Mon–Fri 6am–2pm, closed Sundays” fills the hours table, an address gets a Get directions button, and a phone number or email becomes a tap-to-call or tap-to-email button beside your form. Your story (“we started baking in a garage in 2014”), your own FAQ questions, and your price tiers are used word for word. Pricing and FAQ sections now fit the business — a bakery gets custom-order pricing, not software plans — and “use an elegant font” changes the type instead of rewriting your headline.

  1. Build — the first draft is written for your business

    Tell /build what you’re making — a coffee roaster, salon, gym, bakery, clinic, photographer, pet care, and more — and the Local Service and Landing templates now open with copy for that business: its own badge, button, feature cards, sample quote, and contact form. Food businesses get a starter menu. Asking for a menu or services list by name (“add a menu with espresso, latte and cold brew”) now uses exactly those items, and new testimonial sections fit the business instead of generic filler.

  2. Build — your apps are saved, listed, and downloadable

    Apps you make on /build are now saved in a database instead of on the server’s scratch disk, so they survive site updates and restarts, along with their undo history. A new My builds list brings back every app you made in this browser, so you can pick up where you left off. Download zip exports a static site (index.html + styles) that opens straight from your computer or drops onto any static host. A lasting public URL or custom domain is still Spawn desktop (Ship → Open to the internet).

  1. Build — create apps on spawnapp.org

    /build is live: name an app, pick a starter template, get a live preview, and change it with Build chat (offline rules on the site; same templates as desktop). Honest limits stay visible — lasting public URL and custom domain still need Spawn desktop (Ship → Open to the internet). Home CTAs now lead to Build; /access remains for desktop invites.

  2. Site — first visit loads instantly

    After a quiet stretch, the first person to open spawnapp.org could wait 10+ seconds on a blank tab while the server woke up. The site now stays warm around the clock, so the first paint is as fast as every visit after it.

  1. Home — Go Live honesty on the only page people see

    PostHog still shows almost all traffic on / alone. Closed the leftover soft overclaim on the home Go Live IDE: replaced “Live on the internet — without leaving Spawn” with Ship → Open to the internet copy (copy/QR from your machine, tunnel can refresh, PC stays on for lasting traffic). Domain row now says DNS + port-forward; captions and publish feedback match. Added the same “How public actually works” strip used on /how and /why so strangers get honest internet-launch expectations without leaving home.

  1. Why — Go Live honesty catch-up

    Closed the remaining overclaim gap on /why after the Sep 30 internet-launch pass: removed “HTTPS that stays up” / “doesn’t vanish when the tab closes” language. Why now matches How / Product / FAQ — Ship → Open to the internet for shareable HTTPS from your machine; lasting custom domains need DNS + port-forward; PC stays on for lasting traffic. Added the same “How public actually works” strip and tightened Who it’s for.

  1. Go Live — honest internet-launch path

    Marketing copy now matches how Spawn actually ships: Ship → Open to the internet for a copyable public HTTPS URL (and QR) from your machine; lasting custom domains need DNS to your WAN IP plus router port-forward; PC stays on for lasting traffic; tunnel links can refresh after reconnect. Removed false *.spawnapp.org user-app URL claims from Home / How / Tour / Product. Elevated /how with a “How public actually works” strip and /faq Shipping answers (including “Does my computer need to stay on?”).

  1. Access — conversion path you can trust

    /access elevates early-access conversion: denser hero with section rail, join form paired with a clear “what happens next” timeline (list → invite wave → install on your machine), honest beta expectations (local builder, ship kit, still evolving), and Explore paths including FAQ. Alias /get-access now 301s to /access. Waitlist API unchanged.

  1. Privacy — honest waitlist & analytics disclosure

    /privacy elevates from a thin outdated card to match Access / FAQ: denser hero with proof chips and section jumps; clear sections for waitlist email (POST /api/waitlist, local file + PostHog waitlist_signup), site analytics (PostHog), error monitoring (Sentry), apps & secrets on your machine, cookies, and what we don’t do — no fake browser-local waitlist claim, no invented legal theater. CTAs to Early access, FAQ Privacy, and Home.

  2. Why & FAQ — differentiation and plain answers, elevated

    /why and /faq rise to match home / Product / Tour / How / Showcase / Access: Why gets a denser hero with proof chips and section rail, a four-point differentiation grid (private machine, real public URL, Build chat, ship kit), tightened principles, and paths into Tour / Product / Access. FAQ gets grouped Basics / Privacy & machine / Shipping / Access sections, tighter answers (including Go Live), jump links, FAQPage structured data, and CTAs to Access and How — complementary, not a second Product or How.

  3. Performance polish — snappier loads, same premium feel

    Static CSS/JS/images now send long-lived Cache-Control with stale-while-revalidate; HTML stays must-revalidate with etag. Stylesheet preload, deferred analytics/app scripts, idle-deferred Sentry, gzip/brotli via compression middleware, and leaner og.png / apple-touch icon — without gutting design or touching waitlist, CSP, PostHog, clean URLs, or the branded 404.

  4. Home — denser first-three-seconds story

    / elevates to match Product / Tour / Showcase / Access: stronger hero with private-machine framing and proof chips, tighter Create → Change → Go Live clarity, richer CTAs, a compact private→public bridge under the product preview, and a four-path Go deeper strip — still a home page, not a second Product or Tour.

  5. Product — denser capability story

    /product elevates what’s in Spawn: stronger hero with private-machine → public-URL framing, surface jump rail, eight capability cards with subtle mini-chrome (Create, Run, Build chat, Go Live, Domains, Secrets, Plugins, Account), a ship-kit strip, and clear paths into Tour, How, and Access — feature-forward, not a second walkthrough.

  6. Access — stronger early-access conversion

    /access elevates the waitlist page: clearer “why join now” hero, honest trust strip (private machine, public URL, invite waves), sharper form UX, three beta-value bullets, and paths into Tour, How, and Showcase — waitlist API wiring unchanged.

  7. Tour — interactive product walkthrough

    /tour elevates the Build → Run → Ship story: stronger hero with step rail and early-access CTA, denser stage chrome (tabs, address bar, deploy checklist), clearer step bridges, and paths into How and Showcase.

  8. Showcase — higher-wow example apps

    /showcase gets a stronger hero, six premium mini-UI mocks (Relay, Harbor, Nightshift, Tiprail, Vaultfall, Firstlight), category jumps, “clone this vibe” paths to early access, and a shareable “built to brag about” strip.

  9. How it works — richer product story

    /how now mirrors Tour-level mock UI for Create, Run, Build chat, and Go Live, with a loop progress rail, a clear “on your machine vs public” section, and HowTo structured data.

  1. Branded 404

    Unknown paths now return a proper Spawn 404 — same nav, footer, and tone as the rest of the site — instead of a bare Express error. Status stays 404; preview at /404.

  1. Premium feel — motion, feedback, favicon

    Restrained interaction polish sitewide: button lift/press, nav underline, card hover on Explore / Showcase / Tour frames, intentional focus-visible rings, and a soft once-enter fade. CSS-only, 150–280ms ease, respects prefers-reduced-motion. New favicon set (favicon.ico, favicon.svg, apple-touch) — accent check on warm black.

  2. Sitemap, robots, structured data

    Public robots.txt and sitemap.xml for all clean marketing URLs, plus JSON-LD (WebSite + Organization) on home and Organization on other pages — accurate only, no invented profiles. Canonical link tags sitewide.

  3. Home + nav tighten

    Primary nav is now Product, Tour, Showcase, and Early access — short enough for laptop widths without a 1080px breakpoint. How, Why, FAQ, Changelog, and Privacy live in the footer (and mobile “More”). Home adds a tight Explore path — Tour, Showcase, Why — so the story sells fast, then routes.

  4. Why Spawn

    A differentiation page — local-first, you own the machine, ship a real URL — at /why. Clean URL, sitewide nav and footer, and inbound links from Home and Product.

  5. Social / Open Graph cards

    Premium share cards sitewide — Open Graph and Twitter summary_large_image with a 1200×630 og.png, unique titles and descriptions per marketing page, and absolute https://spawnapp.org URLs.

  6. Access conversion polish

    Sharper early-access hero and value props, clearer waitlist form UX (labels, loading, success/error, privacy trust line), honest social-proof strip, and Tour + Showcase links for fence-sitters — /access.

  7. Showcase

    Premium example apps — live boards, social tools, money flows, games, launch kits — at /showcase. Clean URL, sitewide nav, and inbound CTAs from Home and Product.

  8. Product tour

    A visual walkthrough of Build → Run → Ship with UI frames — see the tour. Clean URL at /tour; wired into sitewide nav and footer.

  9. Clean marketing URLs

    Public paths are now /how, /product, /access, /privacy, and /faq. Old .html links 301 to the clean form.

  10. FAQ

    Straight answers on what Spawn is, local vs cloud, early access, domains, secrets, and how publishing works — read the FAQ.

  11. Product page

    A clear rundown of Create, Run, Build chat, Go Live, Domains, Secrets, Evolve, and local AI — see the product.

  12. Waitlist API + durable capture

    Real signup endpoint with rate limits and honeypot. Signups dual-write to PostHog so the list survives redeploys; export stays token-gated.

  13. PostHog + Sentry live

    Product analytics and error monitoring wired on the marketing site so we can see what actually happens.

  14. Multi-page site

    Home, How it works, Product, and Early access — one design system, shared nav and footer.

  1. Premium landing rewrite

    Product-first IDE hero, denser copy, mobile polish — framed preview card, quieter chrome, no brochure filler.

  2. Site live on spawnapp.org

    Marketing home deployed and serving. Building in public from day one.

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