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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/apursley2012/aurora-drift/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

Aurora Drift is a static Vite project, so there is nothing to configure, provision, or authenticate before you can run it. All you need is Node.js 18+ and a package manager. The steps below take you from an empty directory to a fully animated portfolio running locally.
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Clone the repository
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Download the project source from GitHub using git clone:
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git clone https://github.com/apursley2012/aurora-drift.git
cd aurora-drift
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This gives you the complete project directory, including the compiled assets/ bundle, all React components, the ten pre-built page HTML files, and the full Tailwind CSS output — everything you need is already there.
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Install dependencies
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Install the npm packages that power the development server, build tooling, and type checking:
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npm
npm install
yarn
yarn install
pnpm
pnpm install
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The key runtime dependencies pulled in are React 18, Framer Motion, React Router DOM v6, and Tailwind CSS. The devDependencies include Vite and its React plugin for fast HMR during development.
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Start the development server
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Launch Vite’s dev server with:
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npm run dev
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Vite will start almost instantly and print something like:
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  VITE v4.x.x  ready in 300 ms

  ➜  Local:   http://localhost:5173/
  ➜  Network: use --host to expose
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Open http://localhost:5173 in your browser. You will immediately see the navy deep-space background appear, the three-layer aurora SVG begin its slow wave animation, and the navigation bar fade in across the top.
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Explore the aurora
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With the dev server running, try the following to experience all four visual systems at once:
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  • Move your mouse across the page — the 300 px CursorGlow radial gradient will follow your cursor with spring lag.
  • Click a nav link (About, Projects, Skills, etc.) — the PageTransition wrapper will blur and slide the outgoing page up while the incoming page fades up from below.
  • Tilt your mouse toward a corner — the aurora SVG layer subtly parallaxes in the direction of your pointer, driven by Framer Motion spring physics.

    • ​
    Building for Production

    When you are ready to ship, run the Vite build command: 
    npm run build
    Vite compiles everything into a dist/ folder of fully static files — plain HTML, pre-bundled JavaScript, and a single Tailwind CSS output. The result is deployable to any static host with zero server-side logic required.
    The cloned repository is itself a compiled output — it does not include source files such as vite.config.js or tailwind.config.js. The assets/ directory contains the pre-built JavaScript and CSS bundles. If you need to modify Vite or Tailwind configuration, you will need the original Vite project source used to produce this output.
    The compiled repository layout (which is also what a production build produces) looks like this: 
    aurora-drift/
├── index.html
├── .nojekyll
├── assets/
│   ├── main.js
│   ├── main.css
│   ├── proxy.js
│   └── use-spring.js
├── components/
│   ├── AuroraBackground.js
│   ├── CursorGlow.js
│   ├── Nav.js
│   └── PageTransition.js
└── pages/
    ├── About.html
    ├── Blog.html
    └── ...
    The repository includes a .nojekyll file at the root. This tells GitHub Pages to serve the project as-is without running it through the Jekyll static-site generator — which would otherwise strip files beginning with an underscore or mishandle Vite’s asset paths. If you deploy to GitHub Pages, make sure .nojekyll is present at the root of your deployed branch (e.g. main or gh-pages).
    The build output contains placeholder content throughout — sample bio text, dummy project cards, fake testimonials, and a non-functional contact form. Before publishing your portfolio, see Adapting the Portfolio for a guided walkthrough of every place you need to swap in your real content.

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