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fix(site): replace GA4 with PostHog cookieless analytics#894

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decepulis merged 5 commits intomainfrom
dc/posthog-again
Mar 11, 2026
Merged

fix(site): replace GA4 with PostHog cookieless analytics#894
decepulis merged 5 commits intomainfrom
dc/posthog-again

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@decepulis decepulis commented Mar 11, 2026 •
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Summary

  • Replace GA4 with PostHog using cookieless_mode: 'always' (server-side hashing, no cookies/localStorage/sessionStorage)
  • Add Netlify reverse proxy (/ph/* → PostHog)
  • Production-only guard so analytics don't load in dev
  • Update privacy policy to reflect the change

Closes #893

Context

GA4 Consent Mode v2 (all consent denied) relies on behavioral modeling that requires some users to accept cookies via a consent banner. Since the site has no consent banner and isn't planning on one, GA has zero sample data to model from, producing wildly deflated numbers (Netlify reports ~4300 hits on a blog post while GA reports ~70).

PostHog's cookieless_mode: 'always' uses server-side hashing (hash(team_id, daily_salt, ip, ua, hostname)) with no client-side storage, giving accurate pageview counts without any consent mechanism.

Changes

File Change
site/src/components/Posthog.astro New PostHog component with cookieless mode, idle-loaded via requestIdleCallback
site/src/layouts/Base.astro Remove GA4 scripts, add production-gated PostHog component
site/netlify.toml Add two redirect rules to proxy /ph/* through to PostHog
site/src/content/pages/privacy.mdx Replace GA reference with PostHog cookieless description

Setup required

"Cookieless server hash mode" must be enabled in PostHog project settings for this to work.

Test plan

  • pnpm build:site passes
  • Built HTML contains PostHog snippet, no GA/gtag references
  • Verify PostHog does NOT load in dev mode (pnpm dev)
  • Verify PostHog loads on deployed preview
  • Confirm "Cookieless server hash mode" is enabled in PostHog project settings
  • Verify pageview events appear in PostHog dashboard after deploy

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

@decepulis @claude
fix(site): replace GA4 with PostHog cookieless analytics
038b4fd 
GA4 Consent Mode v2 (all consent denied) relies on behavioral modeling
that requires some users to accept cookies via a consent banner. Since
the site has no consent banner, GA has zero sample data to model from,
producing wildly deflated numbers (e.g., Netlify reports ~4300 hits
while GA reports ~70 for the same blog post).

PostHog's cookieless_mode: 'always' uses server-side hashing with no
cookies/localStorage/sessionStorage, giving accurate counts without
any consent mechanism.

Closes #893

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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📦 Bundle Size Report

🎨 @videojs/html

(no changes)

Presets (7)
Entry Size
/video (default) 21.74 kB
/video (default + hls) 152.26 kB
/video (minimal) 21.56 kB
/video (minimal + hls) 151.99 kB
/audio (default) 20.48 kB
/audio (minimal) 20.49 kB
/background 6.44 kB
Media (4)
Entry Size
/media/background-video 617 B
/media/container 1.91 kB
/media/hls-video 131.23 kB
/media/simple-hls-video 11.91 kB
Players (3)
Entry Size
/video/player 6.31 kB
/audio/player 6.31 kB
/background/player 6.30 kB
Skins (15)
Entry Type Size
/video/minimal-skin.css css 2.57 kB
/video/skin.css css 2.62 kB
/video/minimal-skin js 20.98 kB
/video/minimal-skin.tailwind js 21.16 kB
/video/skin js 21.13 kB
/video/skin.tailwind js 21.39 kB
/audio/minimal-skin.css css 2.17 kB
/audio/skin.css css 2.19 kB
/audio/minimal-skin js 19.94 kB
/audio/minimal-skin.tailwind js 19.74 kB
/audio/skin js 19.94 kB
/audio/skin.tailwind js 19.97 kB
/background/skin.css css 124 B
/background/skin js 999 B
/base.css css 205 B
UI Components (21)
Entry Size
/ui/alert-dialog 2.05 kB
/ui/alert-dialog-close 1.24 kB
/ui/alert-dialog-description 1.50 kB
/ui/alert-dialog-title 1.52 kB
/ui/buffering-indicator 1.79 kB
/ui/captions-button 1.77 kB
/ui/controls 1.80 kB
/ui/fullscreen-button 1.76 kB
/ui/mute-button 1.81 kB
/ui/pip-button 1.76 kB
/ui/play-button 1.79 kB
/ui/playback-rate-button 1.80 kB
/ui/popover 3.06 kB
/ui/poster 1.74 kB
/ui/seek-button 1.78 kB
/ui/slider 2.02 kB
/ui/thumbnail 2.07 kB
/ui/time 1.82 kB
/ui/time-slider 2.93 kB
/ui/tooltip 2.39 kB
/ui/volume-slider 2.16 kB

Sizes are marginal over the root entry point.

⚛️ @videojs/react

(no changes)

Presets (7)
Entry Size
/video (default) 16.72 kB
/video (default + hls) 147.63 kB
/video (minimal) 16.72 kB
/video (minimal + hls) 147.48 kB
/audio (default) 14.41 kB
/audio (minimal) 14.44 kB
/background 3.18 kB
Media (3)
Entry Size
/media/background-video 539 B
/media/hls-video 131.52 kB
/media/simple-hls-video 12.26 kB
Skins (14)
Entry Type Size
/video/minimal-skin.css css 2.57 kB
/video/skin.css css 2.62 kB
/video/minimal-skin js 16.62 kB
/video/minimal-skin.tailwind js 19.21 kB
/video/skin js 16.62 kB
/video/skin.tailwind js 19.30 kB
/audio/minimal-skin.css css 2.17 kB
/audio/skin.css css 2.19 kB
/audio/minimal-skin js 14.35 kB
/audio/minimal-skin.tailwind js 16.17 kB
/audio/skin js 14.31 kB
/audio/skin.tailwind js 16.39 kB
/background/skin.css css 90 B
/background/skin js 272 B
UI Components (17)
Entry Size
/ui/alert-dialog 2.74 kB
/ui/buffering-indicator 2.17 kB
/ui/captions-button 2.28 kB
/ui/controls 2.19 kB
/ui/fullscreen-button 2.26 kB
/ui/mute-button 2.28 kB
/ui/pip-button 2.25 kB
/ui/play-button 2.30 kB
/ui/playback-rate-button 2.25 kB
/ui/popover 3.17 kB
/ui/poster 2.03 kB
/ui/seek-button 2.24 kB
/ui/slider 3.10 kB
/ui/time 2.40 kB
/ui/time-slider 2.80 kB
/ui/tooltip 3.24 kB
/ui/volume-slider 2.66 kB

Sizes are marginal over the root entry point.

🧩 @videojs/core

(no changes)

Entries (5)
Entry Size
. 4.78 kB
/dom 8.05 kB
/dom/media/custom-media-element 1.76 kB
/dom/media/hls 131.14 kB
/dom/media/simple-hls 11.76 kB

🏷️ @videojs/element

(no changes)

Entries (2)
Entry Size
. 999 B
/context 936 B

📦 @videojs/store

(no changes)

Entries (3)
Entry Size
. 1.32 kB
/html 700 B
/react 360 B

🔧 @videojs/utils

(no changes)

Entries (10)
Entry Size
/array 104 B
/dom 1003 B
/events 227 B
/function 261 B
/object 119 B
/predicate 265 B
/string 148 B
/style 190 B
/time 478 B
/number 158 B

📦 @videojs/spf

(no changes)

Entries (3)
Entry Size
. 40 B
/dom 10.03 kB
/playback-engine 9.93 kB
ℹ️ How to interpret

All sizes are standalone totals (minified + brotli).

Icon Meaning
✅ No change
🔺 Increased ≤ 10%
🔴 Increased > 10%
🔽 Decreased
🆕 New (no baseline)

Run pnpm size locally to check current sizes.

@decepulis @claude
fix(site): update PostHog snippet for new org
0b2b829 
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
@decepulis @claude
fix(site): add host header to PostHog proxy redirects
550ae20 
Without the host header, PostHog receives the Netlify domain as the
Host header and rejects the request with a 400.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
@decepulis @claude
fix(site): exclude PostHog proxy paths from trailing-slash redirect
2ead0da 
The trailing-slash edge function was intercepting `/ph/e/` with a 301
redirect before the Netlify proxy could handle it, causing a 400 from
PostHog on the redirected request.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
@decepulis @claude
fix(site): drop PostHog privacy link from privacy policy
8127820 
PostHog's /privacy is their corporate policy, not a data-handling
guide for customers' end-users. Remove the link rather than point
to an irrelevant page — legal can add one back if needed.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
@decepulis decepulis merged commit 0de0c28 into main Mar 11, 2026
18 of 19 checks passed
@decepulis decepulis deleted the dc/posthog-again branch March 11, 2026 21:03
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Replace GA4 with PostHog cookieless analytics

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@decepulis