{"id":643,"slug":"research-brief-2026-build-standards","title":"Research brief: Candid Creative 2026 Build-Standards — web stack decision framework for SMB marketing sites & lightweight apps (piece 16)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","claude-code","candid-team"],"topics":["tech-stack","agency-methodology","framework-choice"],"reference_body":"**Status:** Research material — not a finished article. Compiled May 22, 2026.\n\n## TL;DR\n\n- **Default stack for 90% of Candid Creative work in 2026:** Astro 5/6 with the Content Layer API, deployed on Cloudflare Pages/Workers, styled with Tailwind v4, with Postgres + pgvector when a data layer is needed. See [[rule-prefer-astro-cloudflare-default-marketing-site]].\n- **The biggest 2025–2026 platform shifts:** same-document View Transitions Baseline (Oct 14, 2025); Speculation Rules in Chromium today; INP replaced FID March 2024; Tailwind v4 Oxide; React Compiler 1.0 (Oct 7, 2025); Next.js 16 \"Cache Components\" (Oct 2025).\n- **AI-assisted development is the productivity moat for a 1-3 person KW shop.** Claude Code + Cursor/Copilot is the dominant enterprise pattern; see [[ai-dev-productivity-realistic-ceiling-2026]].\n\nSee also [[research-brief-case-against-page-builders]], [[research-brief-built-to-last]], and [[research-brief-page-speed-moat]] which this brief extends with framework-choice and progressive-enhancement primitives.","rationale_body":"Piece 16 of the Candid foundation roadmap. Codifies the framework-choice decision tree, View Transitions / Speculation Rules adoption, and AI-tooling stance. Reads as a build-standards reference for every new client engagement.","metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[{"slug":"research-brief-built-to-last","title":"Research brief: Built to Last — why most SMB sites rebuild every 3-4 years (piece 5 of 15)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"research-brief-page-speed-moat","title":"Research brief: Page Speed as a Moat — why CWV separates the agencies from the freelancers (piece 9 of 15)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"research-brief-case-against-page-builders","title":"Research brief: The Case Against Page Builders (piece 10 of 15)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"rule-prefer-astro-cloudflare-default-marketing-site","title":"RULE: Default stack for new marketing-site work is Astro 5/6 + Tailwind v4 on Cloudflare Pages","kind":"rule","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"ai-dev-productivity-realistic-ceiling-2026","title":"AI-assisted dev productivity 2026: published evidence ranges from 21-28% speedup (GovTech) to 19% slowdown (METR RCT) — honest ceiling is 1.3-1.7× for fluent users","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}],"incoming":[]},"created_at":"2026-05-22T21:24:18.228Z","updated_at":"2026-05-22T21:24:18.228Z"}