Ryan James
Founder & CEO, Seahawk Media
Started AstroBeginner. Reads the final draft of every guide, and is the one who gets the email when a step is wrong.
How our guides are made
We use AI. We also use people. Here's the order they come in, and who the people are.
A small confession. This site is built with Claude Code, and most guides start life as an AI draft. We're not going to pretend a team of monks hand-lettered them. What we will promise is this: no page goes live until a human has run every command, read every line, and put their name on it. The AI writes fast. The human is the one who gets the email when it's wrong.
Humdee has reviewed none of it. She has approved all of it.
From draft to published, in six steps
- 1
A draft, written with AI
Yes, really. Claude Code drafts most of what you read here, and it would be strange to hide that, since it is sitting right there in the terminal while we work. AI is fast and tireless. It is also confidently wrong about new versions of Astro, which is why there are five more steps.
- 2
Every command is run
Before a guide is published, a person runs each command on the Astro version named at the top of the page. If a step cannot be run, the guide says so in plain words.
- 3
A human reads it as a beginner
Someone who has to answer for the page reads every sentence. The question is always the same: would a complete newcomer know what to do next?
- 4
The reading level is measured
A script grades every page. Our target is grade 5 or lower, and the course sits between grade 2 and 4. Big words get explained, or replaced.
- 5
Facts are checked at the source
Features come from the official Astro and EmDash docs. Prices and limits come from the host, with the date we checked.
- 6
It gets updated, not abandoned
When a new Astro release changes a step, we fix the guide and change the date at the top. Old tutorials are how beginners get hurt.
The review board
The Seahawk Media team. Between them they build websites, run hosting partnerships and look after customers all day, which is a useful set of people to have reading a guide before a beginner does. No single person writes AstroBeginner. Every page is a team effort, and every page gets read by someone on this board before it goes live.
Ankur Gandhi
VP of WordPress
Anything we say about WordPress, and about moving away from it, goes past Ankur.
Blaise Kavai
VP of Product
Reads guides the way a product gets reviewed: does each step do what it says?
Akshay Kumar
VP of Marketing
Our check on what we say about search, titles and getting found on Google.
Nusrat Haneef
VP of Customer Success
Reads as a beginner would, and flags the step where someone would get stuck.
Amandeep Singh
VP of Growth
Watches which guides people need next, so we write those first.
Monika Singh
VP of Operations
Keeps the testing honest: a guide is not published until its steps have been run.
Shubhrata Dubey
Chief of Staff
Keeps the team and the site moving in the same direction.
Anil Thaakran
Head of Business Development
Hears what hosts and agencies are asking about, and brings the questions back.
Morale
Humdee
Guard dog, also known as Sweedy
Sits beside the keyboard while every command is tested. She has reviewed nothing. She has approved everything.
Simon
Mascot
The Seahawk himself. Appears when morale needs it. Cannot type.
The promises, in one place
- Tested. Each guide says which Astro version its steps were run on. If a step wasn't run, it says that too.
- Plain. Short sentences, common words, every technical term explained where it first appears.
- Sourced. Facts, prices and limits link to where we found them, with the date we checked.
- Independent. No paid placements, no affiliate links. If that ever changes, it will say so on the page. See our disclosure.
- Correctable. Found a mistake? Email ryan@seahawkmedia.com. Corrections get a new date at the top of the guide.