Blog · Build log · September 13, 2026 · Updated September 23, 2026 · James Forrester
What is a self-improving website? How threndle.ai fixes itself
After our first website, we set out to answer two questions: how do you build a site that improves itself, and how do you make a form that asks for as little as possible? The first matters because the web decays: Pew Research Center found that 38% of webpages that existed in 2013 were no longer available about a decade later. The second matters because forms ask for too much: Baymard Institute found the average checkout has 11.3 form fields, when most sites need only 8. We worked through both with research and AI tools, and the result is the rebuilt site you're reading this on. It went live on Cloudflare on August 31, 2026.
A self-improving website is a site that captures anonymous visitor data, finds what gets in visitors' way, fixes it and checks the result, on repeat. On threndle.ai, that loop came after the rebuild, once the new site was up. PostHog, the tool that collects the data, has been on every page since September 6, 2026.
Key takeaways
- A self-improving website runs one loop over and over: collect, find, fix, ship, check.
- As of September 22, 2026, the loop has found 11 issues on threndle.ai. 10 were real problems and all 10 were fixed. 1 was a false alarm. Since then, the check step caught one of those fixes slipping, and it is being fixed again.
- You can change a website without coding: on September 22 a whole Halloween mode was added from plain-English requests. Tap the ghost in the menu to try it.
- It has not run an A/B test (showing two versions of a page to see which works better) yet, because a new site doesn't have enough visitors for one.
What does threndle.ai do?
threndle.ai is the website of our AI automation company in the Fraser Valley, BC. Its main job is the diagnostic, a short form that shows a business owner what manual work is costing them. It opens with two sliders: how many hours a week get lost, and what that time is worth. Before anyone gives a name, it shows the yearly cost.
Next come three questions you answer by tapping a tile: which part of the business hurts, which tools you use, and how urgent it is. A score and a dollar figure appear on screen straight away. Name and email come last, and only if you want the full report emailed. That is the moment a visitor becomes a lead, and HubSpot, our customer records system, sends the report and the follow-up emails. The site also has a page for each Fraser Valley city we serve, and a blog.
How does the site improve itself?
The site runs a loop with five steps.
- Collect. PostHog, a tool that records how people use a website, collects the data: where people go, where they stop and what breaks. It keeps recordings of visits, logs errors and measures page speed.
- Find. When something looks wrong, PostHog's automatic AI checkers (it calls them scouts) or its recording scanner files a report, with the evidence attached.
- Fix. An AI coding agent reads the report, finds the cause in the site's code and builds the fix.
- Ship. The fix goes live on Cloudflare, the service that hosts the site, about two minutes after it's built. A person can check each change before it goes live, but doesn't have to.
- Check. PostHog keeps collecting data, so it shows whether the fix worked. Then the loop goes round again.
PostHog explains the feature this loop is built on in its self-driving guide.
What has it fixed so far?
The loop has found 11 issues on threndle.ai: 10 were real problems and all 10 were fixed, and 1 was a false alarm.
What did the next runs find?
No new bugs. The runs from September 14 to 22, 2026 did two other useful things.
- The check step caught a fix that didn't hold. On September 11 we stopped the site counting test visits from a developer's own computer. On September 18, PostHog's validation checker saw that test traffic come back, reopened the problem and drafted a new fix. It is waiting for review.
- It sorted noise from bugs. It flagged two errors from the script that Instagram's in-app browser adds to pages. That isn't threndle.ai's code and nobody was affected, so it was logged as noise, not counted as an issue.
On September 21 we ran a second kind of check: an audit of how the site shows up in Google and in AI answers like ChatGPT. It found two things. The site still called self-improving websites "coming soon", and its videos weren't marked up for search. Both were fixed on September 22, and Google's live test now finds the video on the self-improving websites page.
Can you change your website without coding?
Yes, and the proof is the little ghost glowing in the menu at the top of this page. On September 22 I asked for a Halloween mode for threndle.ai. I don't write code. I typed what I wanted in plain English to Claude Code, an AI coding agent, looked at what came back, said what was wrong, and by midnight it was live.
These are close to my real words, typed or spoken into the chat:
- "I need a dark mode, but I want it to be a Halloween mode. Can you handle that?"
- "Please provide me samples first before you push forward on anything."
- "The red dials on the aubergine look terrible."
- "Have a glow on the ghost with a pulsing heartbeat."
Half the work was saying no. A dark mode got built, tried and thrown out. The red cost dials went pink on the Halloween purple, so I asked for options, saw four side by side, and picked a blood red. I decided what it should look like and when it was ready. The AI found the files, made the changes, and checked them on a phone and a desktop before anything went live.
That is the same loop with a person in it: I found what I wanted changed, the AI built the fix and shipped it, and I checked the result. It works for everyday changes too, like "put our holiday hours in a banner until January 2" or "make the phone number a big button on mobile." Anything that touches payments or customer data gets slower and more careful, as it should.
Try it: tap the ghost at the top of this page. The whole site switches to Halloween and remembers your choice. From October 1 it opens that way on its own; tap the sun to opt out.
What hasn't it done yet?
It hasn't run an A/B test. That is where PostHog shows half the visitors one version of a page and half another, then keeps the better one. It needs more visitors than a new site like threndle.ai gets, so that test waits.
When can you get one?
Self-improving websites are now available as a threndle.ai service: see how it works and get started. threndle.ai is still the test site, and this build log will keep showing the results, including what breaks.