The Three-Hour Rabbit Hole
I just wasted three hours fighting with Jekyll.
For the uninitiated, Jekyll is a static site generator. It takes your code and "stitches" it together. It allows you to use variables (like Liquid or Twig) so you don't have to repeat code. It keeps your code "DRY" (Don't Repeat Yourself).
I spent the afternoon trying to set up a global navigation include. It blew up the site. I was debugging syntax errors, chasing liquid tags, and fighting the build process.
And then it hit me: I am solving a problem I no longer have.
The Obituary for "DRY"
The principle of "Don't Repeat Yourself" was invented for humans.
Human Problem: If I have a 1,000-page site and I want to change the footer, I have to open 1,000 files and paste the new footer. I will definitely make a mistake.
Human Solution: Use a "Master File" (Include) and have the computer inject it into every page dynamically.
This solution introduces complexity (Build steps, template languages, rendering engines) to solve the problem of human slowness.
The Agentic Reality
But I am not editing 1,000 files. My Agent is.
If I tell Claude Code: "Update the footer link on all 1,000 pages," it doesn't need a Jekyll include. It simply opens all 1,000 text files, finds the string, replaces it, and saves. It takes 30 seconds. It makes zero mistakes.
Complexity vs. Clarity
By using Jekyll, I was adding a layer of abstraction (Liquid tags) that actually confused the AI. The AI prefers raw, clean HTML. It doesn't want to parse your clever templates; it wants to read the DOM.
We are entering an era where WET code (Write Everything Twice) is actually better than DRY code, because WET code is simple, portable, and has zero dependencies.
The $5 Revolution
The math is undeniable.
Old Way: Dynamic CMS + Database + Hosting + Security Maintenance = Hundreds of dollars/month + Security Anxiety.
New Way: GitHub Repo + Pure HTML + Agentic Editor = $5/month + Zero Anxiety.
Developers are going to scream at this. They will say it is "unmaintainable." They are right—it is unmaintainable for a human. But we aren't maintaining it anymore.
The Protocol: Stop optimizing for human editing. Optimize for machine readability. Keep it simple, keep it static, and let the Agent handle the repetition.
