Landing page restructure brief

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Generated at: 2026-07-30T12:38:02.000Z UTC · source: committed helm-expt evidence for this rendered repository document.

UNOFFICIAL/EXPERIMENTAL. A brief for Codex: restructure the generated homepage (site/index.html, built by parityFirstHomeHtml in scripts/generate-public-site.mjs) around one narrative spine - look first, prove it on a cluster, change it and keep it - so the page makes one pitch instead of nine. House voice (house-voice.md) and house layout (house-layout.md) throughout.

Where this came from

A reader walked the site with the maintainer and reported three problems: the no-server message was buried, the Get Started page was easier to follow than the homepage, and the chart/recipe/variant vocabulary was hard to explain. PR #1098 and #1099 fixed the buried claim (hero now leads with "Try a catalog package with no server, no cluster, and no account") and the self-contradicting heading. This brief executes the rest.

What's wrong now

The page is a stack of complete pitches, not one pitch. After the hero there are eight more sections (How we help, Examples, What this is, four separate "Try It Now with …" sections, Editing versus buying), and each restates the whole story. The Get Started page reads better because it has a spine: pick a chart → read what it installs → check what it needs → change it and keep it. The homepage should borrow that spine, not compete with it.
The litany repeats. "Hooks, CRDs, prerequisites, and known footguns" appears three times verbatim, plus close variants. House voice caps lists at three and says a noun pile-up signals breadth and informs nothing. Say it in full once.
Six nouns carry three ideas. Chart, package, recipe, base variant, variant, and render intent all appear on one page, and "variants" is used before it is defined. A first-time reader cannot retell the model, which is the test that failed in the field.

The new structure

Seven sections down from ten. The hero stays as landed in #1098/#1099.

Hero - unchanged. H1, lead, the four promise lines, the AI-key terminal card. It already leads with the no-server claim.
Look first (no server, no Kubernetes, no account) - merge the current "Try It Now without a server and without Kubernetes" section with the "Pre-flight checks" journey card. This is the top of the funnel and the first step of the spine. The full hooks/CRDs/prerequisites/footguns list lives here and only here.
Prove it on a cluster - the current "Try It Now with Kubernetes" section, kept tight: the two terminal cards (plain Helm; cub render then apply), the parity sentence, the installer availability note, one link to Get Started.
Change it and keep it - the current "Try It Now with ConfigHub" section. This is where "variant" gets its one-sentence definition (see vocabulary). Keep the four cards (store, edit-and-keep, custom apps, promote) and the demo-org link; they are the account-tier value ladder.
The catalog - fold the "Helm Ops Catalog" journey card and the "Try It Now with our Helm Ops Catalog" section into one short section: what a chart page gives you (rendered objects, render record, route information), one example link, one link to the catalog index.
Editing charts versus buying charts - keep as is (landed in #1078).
What this is - keep the honesty section, moved to the end as the footer note before the actual footer. Proven versus sketched, demo org, unofficial.

The three "Examples" audience notes (values files, upgrades, private platform) restate the pitch; move them to how-it-works.html or cut them. If kept anywhere on the homepage, they must shrink to one line each and appear once. The CTA button row (Get started / Pick a chart / How it works / Check Tests) moves to the end of section 3, where the reader has just seen the commands.

Vocabulary

One sentence per noun, used identically wherever the noun first appears on a page:

A chart is what the vendor ships: a template for Kubernetes objects.
A variant is a supported way to run that chart, rendered to plain files you can read, check, and edit.
A recipe is the recorded instructions that produced a variant: the values, version locks, and checks.

The homepage teaches only chart → variant. "Recipe" comes off the homepage entirely: how-it-works.html and the chart pages define it, and the "What this is" section already says recipes are sketches, so the front page must not sell them. "Package" may appear only next to a --pull command, where it names a concrete thing the reader is pulling.

Generator notes for Codex

site/index.html is byte-checked by npm run site:verify, so this is a generate-public-site.mjs change, not a hand-edit. Regenerate with HELM_EXPT_SITE_GENERATED_AT pinned to the committed site/generated-at.txt value so the diff stays content-only. Run only site:generate, site:verify, and site:ux:verify; the full verify suite is not needed for a homepage change.
Update the checks entry for site/index.html in scripts/verify-site-ux-contract.mjs. It currently pins "Examples", "Try It Now with ConfigHub", "Try It Now with our Helm Ops Catalog", and "Store chart configurations" - several of these headings disappear. Pick stable replacements from the new section names (for example "Look first", "Editing charts versus buying charts", "What this is").
The guideOpeningChecks header terms for site/index.html ("Helm Ops made simple", "AI-friendly Helm tools", "Preview your installs") describe the hero, which does not change; they should keep passing. site/index.html also sits in menuGuidePages and humanSplitPages - keep the nav and the human-split marker intact.
The installer availability note (corrected in #1099) must stay attached to any command block that uses cub installer.
Keep every claim backed. The chart-claim-integrity lane (chart-claim-integrity:verify) exists because pages drifted from their receipts; do not introduce new claims while moving copy. The demo-org link must stay reachable from the homepage (#1073).
Self-check the finished page against house-voice.md (Flesch 60–70 leads, lists capped at three, no template tics) and house-layout.md (narrow prose, hairline sections, terminal cards, one accent).

Acceptance

Each idea appears once: one full litany, one account pitch, one catalog pitch.
A first-time reader can answer, from the homepage alone: what is a chart, what is a variant, what can I try with nothing installed, and what does an account add.
npm run site:verify and npm run site:ux:verify pass.