feat(writing): add article — Converting from Gatsby to Astro using Copilot

[Copilot]

Publishes a new article documenting the full Gatsby → Astro migration, written in first-person conversational style using the agent's PR history as primary source material.

Content

• Why Astro — simplification rationale; no GraphQL, native content collections, static output
• The migration (PR chore(migrate): migrate site from Gatsby to Astro #54) — 119 files, 10K additions / 50K deletions; content collection schema snippet; initial site screenshot
• Deployment saga (PRs Fix deployed site by migrating to official GitHub Pages Actions deployment #56, Fix deployment: push to gh-pages branch instead of GitHub Actions Pages API #58) — three attempts, peaceiris vs actions/deploy-pages, quoted error output
• Gatsby cleanup (PR fix: remove no-cache headers and unregister legacy Gatsby service workers #82) — service worker unregistration inline script
• Design iterations — theme toggle, writing card grid, prev/next navigation
• Footer (PR feat(footer): two-row layout with site links, recent content, bitmoji, and vertical social links #96) — three rounds of back-and-forth to land bitmoji + vertical social icons flush-right; before/after screenshots
• FAB (PR feat: floating action button with scroll-to-top and expandable sub-actions #98) — clock-position trigonometry, missing-screenshots reminder, orbit radius tweak; screenshots
• Golf page (PRs feat(golf): Golf Canada profile page with live handicap index and recent scores #99–feat(golf): add My Bag section sourced from static JSON #105) — build-time Golf Canada API fetch, skeleton fallback, secrets wiring fix, My Bag section; screenshot
• Retrospective — honest assessment of what Copilot handled cleanly vs. what needed iteration

Metadata

title: "Goodbye Gatsby, Hello Astro (Copilot did it)"
date: 2026-03-16
tags: [Astro, Gatsby, GitHub Copilot, React, Tailwind]
slug: "/2026/03/16/converting-from-gatsby-to-astro"

Screenshots embedded in the article use existing GitHub CDN URLs from the original PRs — no new binary assets committed.

Warning

Firewall rules blocked me from connecting to one or more addresses (expand for details)

I tried to connect to the following addresses, but was blocked by firewall rules:

• telemetry.astro.build
  • Triggering command: /home/REDACTED/work/_temp/ghcca-node/node/bin/node node /home/REDACTED/work/kenjdavidson.github.io/kenjdavidson.github.io/node_modules/.bin/astro build (dns block)

If you need me to access, download, or install something from one of these locations, you can either:

• Configure Actions setup steps to set up my environment, which run before the firewall is enabled
• Add the appropriate URLs or hosts to the custom allowlist in this repository's Copilot coding agent settings (admins only)

Original prompt

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This section details on the original issue you should resolve

<issue_title>Article - Converting from Gatsby to Astro</issue_title>
<issue_description>I want to "write" and publish an article based on the process of converting from Gatsby to Astro solely using Copilot. I want the article to include the reason for doing this (simplification) as well as the process of combining my content. It should include how some of the more specific elements like FAB and footer and golf page were designed.

It should include any cool/or more cooler code segments that were used to do so.
It should include any issues, primarily where it took numerous attempts and prs to resolved issues.

The writing should be done in my personal style, using short form and more personalized conversation. Include screenshots where applicable.</issue_description>

<agent_instructions>Ensure that you're writing in my style, you've seen how I write things based on my current articles and my issue definitions. You have access to all the recent PRs so you should be able to see where things went well and things went poorly.</agent_instructions>

Comments on the Issue (you are @copilot in this section)

• Fixes Article - Converting from Gatsby to Astro #106

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