SimpleVLA

A personal build log by Yahya Masri.

SimpleVLA is a long-form, single-page site documenting the journey to understand and build Vision-Language-Action (VLA) systems from first principles. The visual writing style is intentionally inspired by tinytpu.com, adapted for this project.

Style and structure

• Serif-first, article-like layout
• Soft paper-toned background
• Figure + caption rhythm for technical sections
• Footnotes, references, and important resources at the end

Tech stack

• Next.js 15 (App Router)
• React 19
• Tailwind CSS 4
• KaTeX (react-katex) for math rendering
• Vercel Analytics

Run locally

npm install
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000.

Optional Turbopack mode:

npm run dev:turbo

Edit guide

• Main page content: src/app/page.js
• Top-left label + metadata: src/app/layout.js
• Global colors/type/zoom: src/app/globals.css
• Main visual asset: public/vla.svg

Footnotes pattern (for future writing)

Use a marker in the text:

...from first principles.<sup id="fn1-ref"><a href="#fn1">[1]</a></sup>

Define the note in the Footnotes section:

<p id="fn1">
  [1] Your footnote text.
  <a href="#fn1-ref">↩ back</a>
</p>

Build and verify

npm run lint
npm run build
npm run start

Credits

• Design direction inspired by tinytpu.com
• Content and implementation by Yahya Masri