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What is TractStack?

TractStack is a new species of web 2.0 making it possible for millions of websites to adapt to each visitor instead of showing everyone the same thing. It’s an adaptive website builder that creates fast, beautiful, SEO-ready, and accessible websites that respond intelligently to user behavior.

Built on Astro with HTMX and a Golang backend, TractStack uses SQLite by default with optional Turso cloud database support.

Epistemic hypermedia represents a fundamental shift from traditional web personalization. Instead of inferring user preferences through behavioral tracking, it enables visitors to directly declare their beliefs and interests, creating personalized experiences through progressive disclosure.

When a user visits a TractStack-powered page, they see the default version that everyone does. But hidden within that page are countless “folds” - content variants that only reveal themselves when someone signals specific beliefs or interests.

Here’s how it works:

  1. User visits a webpage with hidden content folds
  2. Cache warms and prepares personalized variants
  3. User declares preferences through UI interactions (zero-party data)
  4. System updates state for their session, story fragment, and tenant
  5. Content unfolds automatically via HTMX, revealing relevant sections
  6. Seamless experience - no page refresh, just intelligent content revelation

This creates a privacy-first, user data-driven journey where personalization happens through explicit choice rather than surveillance.

Why Epistemic Hypermedia Changes Everything

Section titled “Why Epistemic Hypermedia Changes Everything”

The Problem with Traditional Personalization

Section titled “The Problem with Traditional Personalization”

Current web personalization is fundamentally broken because it’s based on behavior inference - digital stalking disguised as customer service:

  • Netflix thinks you like action movies because you watched one Jason Statham film
  • Amazon recommends baby products because you bought a gift for your nephew
  • LinkedIn serves AI startup ads because you read one ChatGPT article

Instead of guessing what people want, epistemic hypermedia just asks them. This creates:

  • Authentic personalization based on declared preferences
  • Privacy-first experiences without tracking or cookies
  • Progressive disclosure that reveals relevant content naturally
  • Belief-driven interactions that respect user agency

TractStack includes a complete content management system where you can:

  • Log in to manage your TractStack installation
  • Edit and create new web pages
  • Configure content folds and personalization rules
  • Monitor engagement analytics

All SEO best practices are “pressed” in automatically:

  • Technical SEO optimization
  • Semantic HTML structure
  • Accessibility (A11y) compliance
  • Next-gen image formats for performance
  • Social sharing optimization
  • Privacy-first analytics built-in

TractStack monitors what holds your audience’s attention as they interact with content. Each section of every page becomes a touchpoint for engagement and audience insights.

Out-of-box tracking events:

  • GLOSSED - User briefly viewed content
  • READ - User spent time reading content
  • CLICKED - User interacted with elements
  • ENTERED - User arrived at content
  • PAGEVIEWED - User loaded the page
  • WATCHED - User engaged with media content

Conversion means something different for every business - making sales, receiving donations, getting waitlist sign-ups, booking clients, or any goal you define.

With TractStack, you can add magic paths to better engage each visitor. Based on how they’ve interacted with your site, tailored calls-to-action appear at precisely the right moment.

  • Serving diverse customers with one-size-fits-all experiences
  • Low conversion rates despite heavy personalization investment
  • Privacy compliance concerns with tracking-based systems
  • Inability to deliver truly relevant content experiences

TractStack: Where every webpage becomes a personalized conversation that respects privacy while delivering genuinely relevant experiences.