17 · In-house · AI integration · App development
vona Cockpit: running the website by chat and voice
Our website keeps growing – with a blog, an AI weekly review, an AI tools directory, job postings and a newsletter. The vona Cockpit brings it all together in a Mac app of our own: changes by chat or voice input, SEO and GEO always in view – and nothing goes online before it has been editorially reviewed and approved.
Own project (in-house) – built by vona for itself · project from 2026
- In-house
- SwiftUI
- Claude Code
- Claude
- Python
- Astro
- Search Console API
- Human-in-the-loop
- Chat + voice
- change and extend the website by instruction – typed or spoken
- 14 areas
- from the weekly review to AI visibility in one app
- 0 steps
- go out without editorial review and approval
01 · Problem
vonalab.com is bilingual and alive: pages, a blog, a weekly AI review, an AI tools directory, job postings for Google for Jobs, a newsletter and ongoing work on visibility in Google and AI search. Every step had its own tool: building and checking in the terminal, uploading by command, Search Console, rankings and visitor numbers in the browser, the newsletter in a separate interface. That took time – and especially for steps with an outside effect, the risk of mistakes grew.
02 · Solution
A native macOS app in SwiftUI that does not replace the existing tools but brings them together in 14 areas. At its heart is the chat: what should change on the website is described in everyday language – typed or by voice input, and if you like, the app reads the answer aloud. Claude implements the change as a proposal, the Cockpit builds the site, checks it and shows it on the local server, on the phone too. New pages and sections come about this way just as small corrections do. Recurring workflows run on a schedule: the AI weekly review, new entries for the AI tools directory and the monitoring of search terms then sit in the app as drafts.
03 · SEO & GEO built in
Visibility is part of the workflow, not an afterthought. After every build, an SEO report checks all pages for issues. Search Console shows clicks, positions and the indexing status per URL, and the competition area shows the Google ranking compared with selected competitors. For visibility in AI search, the Cockpit asks AI assistants typical questions from prospects – set up for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Gemini –, evaluates whether and how vona is mentioned, and turns this into a review report with reasons and recommendations.
04 · Editorially reviewed
Nothing goes online before it has been editorially reviewed and approved. Every change from the chat first appears as a proposal with all changed passages; commit, push and upload only run after explicit confirmation. For the weekly review, the app checks the transparency note, links and length automatically – a person checks the key statements against the sources, and only then can it be published. New entries for the AI tools directory arrive as drafts with sources and open points. After every upload, the Cockpit compares the live site with the reviewed version.
05 · How it came about
René Mattis designed the Cockpit; it was developed with Claude Code, Anthropic's AI coding assistant – in conversation, step by step. René set the structure, workflows and security rules and reviewed every change before it was accepted. The first commit dates from 2 October 2026; since then the app has grown with every new need. The fixed rules include: no password in the app, subscriber data is only displayed – never stored and never passed to the AI –, and in the chat Claude can change files but cannot run commands.
06 · Result
One place instead of many windows: the website can be changed and extended by chat or voice, visibility in Google and AI search is always in view, and recurring work is ready as a draft. Because every step with an outside effect needs approval, decisions stay with people. The Cockpit is an internal tool for vonalab.com – and itself an example of what we build with AI: the AI does the groundwork, people review and decide.
07 · Workflow
- Instruction: in the chat, typed or spoken
- Claude: changes files, no commands
- Build & check: build, SEO report, type check
- Preview: local server, on the phone too
- Approval: editorially reviewed
- ONLY AFTER APPROVAL: GitHub commit & push, vonalab.com upload, Live check compared with build
08 · Insights
Schematic, animated depictions of the app – redrawn instead of screenshots so that no client, account or subscriber data is visible. Where figures are examples, the depiction says so. The labels are translated for this page; the app itself runs in German.
Overview: live status, commit, upload, weekly review and Google index at a glance – and how everything fits together Chat: instruction by voice input, Claude implements it, the Cockpit builds and checks – it is only accepted after approval Pages: every page with SEO status, PageSpeed and Google index – clicking PageSpeed shows the result, “Improve in chat” turns it into an instruction SEO report: all pages checked after every build, with details and notes per page AI visibility: questions to ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Gemini, evaluation and review report (sample data) Competition: Google ranking, AI overview and suggestions from Claude based on the page comparison (sample data, competitors anonymized) Weekly review: automatic checks, approval only after the key statements are verified, plus the sources of the weekly run AI tools: import from selected sources, research by Claude with open points and sources – every tool stays a draft until a person has checked it Settings: agency details, schedules, upload via SSH key – keys stay on the Mac only (credentials and addresses anonymized) The hub: where the Cockpit reads from, which AI services do groundwork and where it writes only after approval by a person
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