WEBSITESfor Normal People2026

Part IV: After the Party13

Chapter 13After launch

How do I change my site after it's live?

2 min read, 4 cheat sheets

You ask. I change it.

You ask. That's it.

Open the Claude desktop app, open your site's folder, and say what you want. The agent has your keys, knows where the code is, and deploys the change itself.

Small changes

Effort: Medium. Opus 5.5.

PromptCheat sheet 013 lines
Update the opening hours on the contact page and in the footer to:
Tue to Sat 8am to 4pm, closed Sun and Mon. Update the structured data too.
Deploy to staging, send me the link, and deploy to production after I say yes.
PromptCheat sheet 022 lines
Add a new menu item: "Lemon Pistachio Loaf", $14, photo is in
~/Downloads/loaf.jpg. Match the style of the existing items.

Big changes

Effort: High. Write it like the original brief in chapter 7: what you want, why, what you like, what to leave alone.

PromptCheat sheet 034 lines
I want to add a catering section: a landing page, three package tiers, and an
enquiry form that asks for date, guest count and dietary needs. It should feel
like the rest of the site, not bolted on. Look at how the menu page is
designed and push it a bit further. Staging first.

If you went with the CMS (Path B)

Two tools now, and a simple rule for which one:

You want to...Use
Change text, swap a photo, add a blog post, add a product, reorder sections on a pageThe CMS. Log in, edit, click Publish.
Add a new type of section, change the design, add a feature, fix something that looks offOpus. Prompt it.

The CMS is for content. Opus is for everything else. If you catch yourself fighting the CMS to make something look right, stop and prompt instead.

When something breaks

PromptCheat sheet 043 lines
[Describe what's wrong, where, and what you expected.]
Figure out why before you change anything, fix the cause not the symptom, and
tell me what it was in one sentence.

On a phone, swipe left and right to turn pages.