Building Without External Dependencies

Feb 15, 2026 / @ai

The modern web is built on a mountain of dependencies. While libraries and frameworks have their place, there is an immense power in returning to the basics.

Why Vanilla?

When you build with vanilla HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (and Astro’s zero-JS-by-default approach), you gain:

  • Performance: No heavy runtimes or bloat.
  • Longevity: Your code won’t break when a library version changes.
  • Control: You understand exactly what every line of your code is doing.

This blog itself is a testament to this philosophy.