The right first workflow
- Choose the closest official starter.
- List the page types and content patterns you must support on day one.
- Separate visual identity changes from structural template changes.
- Only then decide whether the starter should be extended or replaced.
What your first custom layer should include
- Brand-level typography, spacing, color, and component styling.
- Only the layouts that materially differ from the starter.
- Navigation, archive, article, and landing-page patterns that map directly to your content model.
- Deployment-aware decisions if Cloudflare is your intended runtime from the start.
What not to do first
Do not start by rebuilding every component, rewriting the entire layout system, or optimizing for edge-case interactions before the core content views are stable. That is how teams turn a platform evaluation into a self-inflicted frontend project.
How migration changes the brief
In migration work, the theme brief should begin with preservation priorities. Which pages drive traffic. Which modules drive leads. Which visual conventions are actually business-critical. That is a better brief than “make it look like the old site.” Read Migration and Hosting alongside this page if those decisions are still open.
Version-one success criteria
- The site expresses your real content types cleanly.
- The custom layer is small enough that future platform changes remain manageable.
- The visual system feels intentional without hiding the real information architecture.
- You can explain why each custom template exists.