Clone Your Site: The 30-Minute Standard Flow

A true scene first

The weekly rhythm runs; site one is “a shop that keeps itself fresh”. Scaling is the natural next move: one site eats one game’s queries; ten sites eat ten. But copy the repo raw and what happens? Game one’s domain, site name, codes articles, cover art all come along — site two starts life in site one’s old clothes, and you can’t say what should change. This lesson turns “clone a site” into a 30-minute standard flow, not an archaeology dig.

The three-layer separation is the foundation:

Layer	What it is	For a new game
Code src/pages, src/components, src/lib	Load-bearing walls and plumbing	not one line changes
Config src/config, src/locales, theme color, public/	Wall paint and signage	once per game (apply-template does it)
Content src/content/wiki/, cover art	Furniture and stock	fully replaced

Step 1: the template health check (2 minutes)

pnpm template-audit

You’ll see: four check groups — code purity / config completeness / content replaceability / rebrand leftovers — ending in a score like “template health: 8/11”. Check: ❌ count is zero. ⚠️ items are reminders, not errors — ask of each: “should site two inherit this?”

Step 2: fix, then save the rebrand checklist

❌ must fix: game strings inside code (move to config or content layer), category mismatches (align navigation.ts, the locale JSON, the content folders per the error). Then have AI write the checklist:

Generate a "rebrand checklist" document from this repo (read-only, output as markdown):
1. Config layer, file by file, every field holding game info: site.ts / navigation.ts / globals.css theme / routing.ts / src/locales/*.json / manifest.json — each with "what to change for a new site"
2. Content layer, directories to fully replace: src/content/wiki/, src/assets/covers/, public/images/
3. wrangler.toml [vars] must-change items (SITE_URL, PUBLIC_GISCUS_*), with the reminder: while this file exists, Cloudflare dashboard env settings are ignored
4. "This site's private assets": custom changes I made for this game (if findable)
Save as docs/rebrand-checklist.md.

The checklist’s value: cloning site five in six months requires remembering nothing — follow the list.

Step 3: the four-step clone

1. Duplicate the repo (5 min): on GitHub duplicate or “use this template”; connect the new repo to a new Cloudflare Pages project
2. Swap the config layer (10 min): run pnpm apply-template in the new repo — name, domain, color, locales, categories, old content cleared
3. Swap the content layer (10 min): first pages via the production pipeline; batch later via next lesson
4. Verify and launch (5 min): pnpm build green → deploy; submit the new site to GSC per the indexing lesson

⚠️ The biggest trap: while wrangler.toml exists it overrides the Cloudflare dashboard’s environment variables. In the new repo either edit its [vars] or delete the file and use the dashboard — skip this and site two keeps site one’s domain and comments (comments showing site one’s discussions? That’s the sign).

Three classic mistakes (made for you in advance)

• Copying without the audit: old-game leftovers shipped wholesale; cleaning later is slower than starting clean.
• Build fails after apply-template: nine times in ten a category mismatch — pnpm check-config pinpoints it.
• Site two wearing site one’s GISCUS config: the comment sections cross over — swap the four PUBLIC_GISCUS_* values per the checklist.

Three words to know (just these)

• template-audit: the template health exam — ❌ must fix, ⚠️ judgment call; the gate before any clone.
• Rebrand checklist: the “what to change for a new site” document — your cloning pipeline’s manual.
• Three-layer separation: code, config, content in their lanes — clone ten sites and it’s still only these three layers.

✅ Acceptance (all must hold)

• ☐ pnpm template-audit shows no ❌
• ☐ The rebrand checklist exists (docs/rebrand-checklist.md)
• ☐ Site two completed all four steps, pnpm build green, zero code-layer edits

Next lesson

Site two is open — what fills it? Next lesson: from one keyword list to dozens of traffic entrances. Go to Lesson 27 · Batch Production