As the site has grown, development has become much more demanding than when the project first started. New content systems, larger datasets, advanced queries, and more complex templates all place greater demands on the server during active development. While the live VPS continues to perform well for serving visitors, it began struggling when used simultaneously for development tasks, WordPress administration, and remote editing through Visual Studio Code.
To address this, both the main site and the development site were migrated into local environments running directly on a personal computer. This allows new features, template changes, and architecture work to be developed and tested locally without placing additional strain on the production server.
The migration also introduced a Git-based workflow. In simple terms, Git acts as a version history for the codebase, making it possible to track changes, recover previous versions when needed, and safely move updates between environments. Instead of editing files directly on the live server, changes are now made locally, tested, committed to the repository, and then deployed to production.
The production VPS remains an important part of the workflow, but its role has changed. Rather than acting as both a live website and a development workstation, it now focuses primarily on serving the site and receiving tested updates. This separation improves stability, reduces the risk of accidental changes, and creates a safer foundation for future development.
An unexpected benefit of the migration was the discovery of several hidden issues that had existed unnoticed for some time. The local environment provides better debugging tools and visibility into warnings that were previously hidden on production, making it easier to identify legacy code, improve performance, and continue refining the site’s architecture as it grows.