Astro is still evolving as a modern frontend framework with partial hydration and island architecture at its core. The latest updates make it even more interesting for performance-focused web apps.
Key Learnings
- Partial Hydration: Only hydrate interactive components. Reduces JS bloat.
- Integration Flexibility: Supports React, Svelte, Vue, and even vanilla JS seamlessly.
- Markdown First: Markdown and MDX support is first-class; perfect for content-heavy sites.
- Server-Side Rendering & Static Output: Can do both SSR and static generation depending on needs.
- Vite-based Tooling: Fast builds, HMR, and modern dev experience.
Thoughts & Experiments
- Ideal for projects where content is static-heavy but needs some interactive components.
- Can pair Astro + AI agents for generating content components or scaffolding templates.
- Tiny learning curve if you already know JS frameworks, but requires rethinking page composition.
- Great playground for trying out new component patterns without performance penalties.
Next Steps: Experiment with Astro islands + AI-generated components for a personal project, test real-world hydration performance, and document patterns that work best.