home: drop Selected Works card + juice hero; per-pillar OG cards; sitemap freshness

Home: the big empty 'Selected Works' section-container card is gone in favour of a compact
centered heading, pulling the bento up ~300px so the work leads directly under the hero.
Hero juice (all LCP-safe + motion-safe): the H1 gets an animated gradient sheen (only the
gradient POSITION animates, so the largest paint is never delayed; verified opacity stays 1),
a soft breathing cyan aura sits behind it (aria-hidden), and the CTAs get a cyan glow + hover
lift.

Services: each pillar page (and the hub) now generates its own OG social card via the shared
gameOgImage helper with a 'Services' badge and the pillar accent, so sharing a pillar shows
a distinct card instead of the generic banner. Verified: distinct per-slug image URLs, valid
1200x630 PNGs.

Sitemap: bump lastModified 2026-06-01 -> 2026-07-12 (we've meaningfully changed the site).

apps/web/src/app/globals.css

@@ -281,4 +281,23 @@
   100% { width: 0; }
 }
 @keyframes nebula-caret { 0%, 50% { border-color: currentColor; } 50.01%, 100% { border-color: transparent; } }
-@keyframes nebula-term-out { to { opacity: 0; } }
+@keyframes nebula-term-out { to { opacity: 0; } }
+
+/* Hero title: an animated gradient sheen. LCP-safe — the text paints immediately with the
+   gradient; only the gradient POSITION animates, which never delays the largest paint. The
+   global reduced-motion rule freezes it to the base gradient. */
+.hero-title {
+  background-image: linear-gradient(110deg, #22d3ee 0%, #3b82f6 30%, #7dd3fc 50%, #3b82f6 70%, #22d3ee 100%);
+  background-size: 220% auto;
+  -webkit-background-clip: text;
+  background-clip: text;
+  color: transparent;
+  animation: hero-sheen 9s ease-in-out infinite;
+}
+@keyframes hero-sheen {
+  0%, 100% { background-position: 0% center; }
+  50% { background-position: 100% center; }
+}
+/* Soft aura behind the hero title (decorative). Gentle breathing scale/opacity. */
+@keyframes hero-aura { 0%, 100% { opacity: 0.55; transform: translateX(-50%) scale(1); } 50% { opacity: 0.8; transform: translateX(-50%) scale(1.08); } }
+.hero-aura { animation: hero-aura 7s ease-in-out infinite; }

apps/web/src/app/page.tsx

@@ -16,11 +16,16 @@ export default function Home() {
     <HomeShell>
       <div
         id="main-content"
-        className="z-10 w-full max-w-7xl mx-auto flex flex-col items-center pt-44 sm:pt-32 pb-10 px-4 text-center scroll-mt-28"
+        className="relative z-10 w-full max-w-7xl mx-auto flex flex-col items-center pt-40 sm:pt-28 pb-10 px-4 text-center scroll-mt-28"
       >
+        {/* Decorative aura behind the title (aria-hidden, LCP-safe, motion-safe). */}
+        <div
+          aria-hidden="true"
+          className="hero-aura pointer-events-none absolute left-1/2 top-24 sm:top-16 -z-10 h-64 w-[46rem] max-w-[92vw] rounded-full bg-cyan-400/25 blur-3xl"
+        />
         <h1
           id="hero-title"
-          className="text-4xl sm:text-5xl md:text-7xl font-bold mb-6 bg-clip-text text-transparent bg-gradient-to-r from-cyan-400 to-blue-600 pb-2"
+          className="hero-title text-4xl sm:text-5xl md:text-7xl font-bold mb-6 pb-2"
           style={{ maxWidth: "min(calc(90vw - 120px), 100%)" }}
         >
           <span className="block">Precision Engineering</span>
@@ -30,24 +35,19 @@ export default function Home() {
           Custom e-commerce, websites, apps, and consulting. Plus our own mobile apps and games. A software studio in Kennett Square, PA.
         </p>
 
-        <div className="flex gap-4 mb-10">
+        <div className="flex flex-wrap justify-center gap-4 mb-14">
           <Link href="/products">
-            <Button size="lg" className="rounded-full">View Portfolio</Button>
+            <Button size="lg" className="rounded-full shadow-lg shadow-cyan-500/25 hover:shadow-cyan-400/40 hover:scale-[1.03] transition-all">View Portfolio</Button>
           </Link>
           <Link href="#contact">
-            <Button variant="outline" size="lg" className="rounded-full">Start a Project</Button>
+            <Button variant="outline" size="lg" className="rounded-full hover:scale-[1.03] transition-all">Start a Project</Button>
           </Link>
         </div>
 
-        {/* Show before tell: the visual work leads, the services copy supports it below.
-            (The old order opened with two screens of text before the first image.) */}
+        {/* Show, don't tell: the bento leads directly under the hero (the Selected Works
+            header card was dropped to pull the work up higher). */}
         <ScrollReveal className="w-full max-w-6xl mx-auto mb-16 px-4">
-          <div className="text-left mb-8 section-container border-l-4 border-l-blue-500">
-            <h2 className="text-3xl font-bold mb-3 tracking-tight text-foreground">Selected Works</h2>
-            <p className="text-muted-foreground text-lg max-w-3xl leading-relaxed">
-              Recent projects spanning e-commerce, games, payment infrastructure, and interactive web applications.
-            </p>
-          </div>
+          <h2 className="text-2xl sm:text-3xl font-bold tracking-tight text-foreground mb-6">Selected Works</h2>
           <PortfolioGrid />
         </ScrollReveal>
 

apps/web/src/app/services/[pillar]/opengraph-image.tsx

@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+import { gameOgImage, OG_SIZE, OG_CONTENT_TYPE } from "@/lib/og";
+import { pillars, pillarBySlug } from "@/lib/services";
+
+export const alt = "Such Software services";
+export const size = OG_SIZE;
+export const contentType = OG_CONTENT_TYPE;
+
+// Prebuild one card per pillar (matches the page's dynamicParams=false).
+export function generateStaticParams() {
+  return pillars.map((p) => ({ pillar: p.slug }));
+}
+
+// Hex accents for the OG card (the pages use Tailwind stems; ImageResponse needs literal colours).
+const ogAccent: Record<string, string> = {
+  commerce: "#3b82f6", // blue
+  games: "#a855f7", // purple
+  crypto: "#22d3ee", // cyan
+  education: "#f59e0b", // amber
+};
+
+export default async function Image({ params }: { params: Promise<{ pillar: string }> }) {
+  const { pillar: slug } = await params;
+  const pillar = pillarBySlug(slug);
+  if (!pillar) return gameOgImage({ title: "Services", tagline: "Such Software", accent: "#34d399", badge: "Services" });
+  return gameOgImage({
+    title: pillar.title,
+    tagline: pillar.card,
+    accent: ogAccent[pillar.slug] ?? "#34d399",
+    badge: "Services",
+  });
+}

apps/web/src/app/services/opengraph-image.tsx

@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+import { gameOgImage, OG_SIZE, OG_CONTENT_TYPE } from "@/lib/og";
+
+export const alt = "Such Software — four things, done well";
+export const size = OG_SIZE;
+export const contentType = OG_CONTENT_TYPE;
+
+export default function Image() {
+  return gameOgImage({
+    title: "Four things, done well",
+    tagline: "Commerce & web, games & apps, crypto & payments, and PhD-led science education.",
+    accent: "#34d399",
+    badge: "Services",
+  });
+}

apps/web/src/app/sitemap.ts

@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ export default function sitemap(): MetadataRoute.Sitemap {
   // every page as "modified now" on every build, which is noise that dilutes the freshness
   // signal. Bump this when the site's static content meaningfully changes. (Blog posts carry
   // their own per-post dates below.)
-  const updated = new Date("2026-06-01");
+  const updated = new Date("2026-07-12");
 
   const staticPages: MetadataRoute.Sitemap = [
     { url: base, lastModified: updated, changeFrequency: "weekly", priority: 1.0 },