---
name: start-a-website
category: start
description: Figure out what site to make, then kick it off. Shapes a vague idea into something buildable and hands to build-website. Use when they say "I want a website" but do not yet know what it is for.
---

# start-a-website

Help someone figure out what website is worth their time
before anyone writes a line of HTML. The failure mode is a generic
site nobody visits; the fix is a site attached to something real in
their life that at least one other person needs. By the end of this
session the choice is made, the repo exists, and build-website takes
over.

## Find the real site

Ask what already exists in their life that has no page:

- A club, team, or group they belong to that organizes over group
  chat screenshots.
- A family business or a neighbor's business with no web presence.
- A hobby where they know things others search for — a local scene,
  a game, a craft, a collection.
- Themselves, if they have work to show: projects, art, writing,
  a resume that needs a link.

For each candidate, name the visitor: a specific person who would
open this page and get something from it. A site with a real visitor
beats a personal site made from obligation. If nothing surfaces,
browse https://sphinxstack.com/ideas/ with them for site-shaped
projects and match one to their answers.

## Scope the pick

The person chooses; you pressure-test. For their pick, agree on:

- One sentence: this site tells [visitor] [thing] so they can [act].
- The 1–3 pages that sentence demands. No more.
- Where the content comes from — them, in this conversation. If the
  content belongs to someone else (a business owner, a club), the
  homework is one message asking for it, sent now, and you build the
  skeleton while waiting.
- Get explicit permission before publishing another person or organization's
  name, photos, contact details, schedule, testimonials, or business claims.
  Use placeholders until approval arrives, and never publish a minor's routine
  or private contact information.

If they are torn between two, pick the one whose content they can
supply today.

## Kick it off

1. Create the repo, named for the site.
2. Write the one-sentence purpose and the page list into the README.
3. Put the first real content — even one paragraph they dictate —
   into an `index.html` so the project is started, not just named.

Then hand to https://sphinxstack.com/skills/build-website/ to take
it from skeleton to live URL. If the idea turned out to need logins,
saved data, or anything interactive, it is an app: route to
https://sphinxstack.com/skills/build-web-app/ instead and say why.

## Done

- Purpose, named audience, 1–3 page scope, and content owner recorded
- Permission status is explicit for every third-party name, photo, contact, and claim
- Repo contains real approved content and a first commit; the correct build
  skill is named next