这个网站之前只是一个简单的 Hugo 静态博客，托管在 GitHub 上。那时还没有 AI 帮忙，只能尽量找别人搭好的 UI 框架，可以改动的地方少得可怜。后来冒出一个念头：让 Codex 帮我把网站大改一遍。于是我把网站迁移到了 Cloudflare。除了前端样式终于可以相对“随心所欲”地调整，也顺手加了几个额外的小功能。

时间过去并不久，但我已经有点记不清最初为什么想做这些东西了。若要细究，可能是因为之前做别的项目时发现 Cloudflare 有很多免费、好用、并且对个人项目非常友好的东西。比如 Cloudflare Workers，它是运行在 Cloudflare 边缘网络上的 serverless 运行时，概念上有点像 AWS Lambda@Edge：不需要自己维护服务器，却可以在离用户更近的地方处理请求。知道了有什么工具，剩下的就变成了关于小小欲望的问题：我到底想要什么？

我希望这里不只是一个能放文字的地方。它应该有真正的功能性，也应该是美的。除此之外，这里除了是我的个人空间，也可以是一个建立 connection 的场所。于是有了下面两个小部分，可以在桌面端首页看到：

Thoughts

最开始的念头是，我想要一个能“发推特”的地方。Blog 偏向于长文，并不是一个能常常更新的地方。更多时候，我的表达欲望只是一句话，需要一个即时的出口。于是产生了这个 Thoughts 块：它连接了我的 Telegram bot，后端由 Cloudflare Workers 实现。

Visitors

这里除了是我的空间，也希望能留下别人的痕迹。后续我可能会进一步加上评论功能，但在那之前，我想先有一个更轻、更好玩的“留爪”功能。

兼顾成本和趣味之后，就有了 Visitors 块。它在首页右侧，访客可以留下姓名和坐标。由于 vibe coding 很多时候只需要告诉 AI 我想要什么，具体技术细节不一定要马上知道，所以很长一段时间里，我其实并不知道这些访客信息到底存到了哪里。直到后来让朋友帮忙测试时，触发了操作过多的 limit，我才开始关注这个问题，问 Codex 它到底把数据存在哪里、limit 又是怎么实现的。由此才知道，它当时使用了 Cloudflare Cache 来保存和读取这类轻量状态，并用缓存键与过期时间做了简单的限流。

严格说，Cloudflare Cache 更适合缓存请求响应，并不是一个真正的数据库。如果这个功能之后变得更正式，应该迁移到 Cloudflare KV、D1 或 Durable Objects 这类更明确的存储方案。但对这个轻量、低成本、带实验性质的小模块来说，Cache 的确暂时够用。

另外值得一提的是，最初这个模块并没有这么好玩，只有文字信息，显得有点干巴巴的。好像是朋友的一句话，说文字漂浮的效果像“小魂儿”，于是才有了后来这个更具象的小魂儿。

现在和 Codex 合作做东西时，我最喜欢的部分常常是：如果暂时不考虑技术限制，我能想象出什么？这个过程中，想象力很多时候是模糊的，需要和 ChatGPT、Claude 讨论很多次。一个很惊喜的点是，Claude 在和我确认具体想象时，会主动直接帮我画出来，包括配色方案，也包括这个小魂儿的效果。然后我拿着它生成的 prompt，再继续让 Codex 真的把它实现出来。

English version

Recently, I have been slightly obsessed with using Codex to build all kinds of ideas that suddenly come to mind.

This website used to be a simple Hugo static blog hosted on GitHub. Back then, without AI helping me, I could only rely on UI frameworks built by others, which left very little room for meaningful customization. Later, I had the idea of asking Codex to help me redesign the site, and I migrated it to Cloudflare. Besides making the front-end style much easier to adjust, I also added a few small features.

Not much time has passed, but I already find it a little hard to remember why I decided to build these things in the first place. If I trace it back, it probably started from other projects where I discovered that Cloudflare offers many free, powerful, and personal-project-friendly tools. Cloudflare Workers, for example, is a serverless runtime running on Cloudflare’s edge network. Conceptually, it is somewhat similar to AWS Lambda@Edge: I do not need to maintain my own server, but I can still process requests closer to users. Once I knew what tools were available, the rest became a question of small desires: what exactly did I want?

I wanted this site to be more than a place for text. It should be functional, and it should also be beautiful. Beyond that, while this is my personal space, it can also be a place for connection. That led to the following two small sections, which can be seen on the desktop homepage:

Thoughts

The original idea was simple: I wanted a place where I could “tweet.” A blog is more suited to long-form writing, and it is not something I update constantly. Most of the time, my urge to express something is only a sentence long. It needs an immediate outlet. That is how the Thoughts section came about: it is connected to my Telegram bot, with the backend implemented through Cloudflare Workers.

Visitors

Besides being my own space, I also wanted this site to leave traces of other people. I may add a proper comment feature later, but before that, I wanted something lighter and more playful.

Balancing cost and fun led to the Visitors section. It sits on the right side of the homepage, where visitors can leave their name and location. Since vibe coding often lets me simply tell AI what I want without immediately understanding every technical detail, for quite a while I actually did not know where these visitor records were stored. It was only after I asked friends to test the feature and they triggered a rate limit that I started paying attention. I asked Codex where the data was stored and how the limit was implemented. That was when I learned that it was using Cloudflare Cache to store and retrieve this lightweight state, with cache keys and expiration times providing a simple form of rate limiting.

Strictly speaking, Cloudflare Cache is better suited for caching request responses; it is not a real database. If this feature becomes more formal later, it should probably move to Cloudflare KV, D1, or Durable Objects, which are clearer storage options. But for a lightweight, low-cost, experimental feature like this, Cache is good enough for now.

Another detail worth mentioning is that this module was not very fun at first. It only showed text, which felt dry. Then a friend said the floating text looked like little wandering spirits, and that comment eventually became the more concrete little spirit you see now.

One of my favorite parts of working with Codex is asking myself: if I temporarily ignore technical constraints, what can I imagine? During this process, imagination is often blurry, and I need to discuss the idea with ChatGPT and Claude many times. One surprising thing is that Claude sometimes helps me make the idea visual while confirming it with me, including color palettes and the effect of the little spirit. Then I take the prompt it generates and ask Codex to actually implement it.