Meeting
Local Jungle - F2F
Gist
Working session between Chris LaFay and Gavin on Local Jungle's WordPress plugin/theme work. They reviewed the coupon plugin structure (agreeing CSS should live in the theme not the plugin), scoped the next automation task for dynamic header fields (phone, hours, address, schedule-online CTA) that pull from location custom post types for single vs multi-location auto shop sites, and discussed AI photo editing tools (Nano Banana, Adobe Firefly) failing to cleanly swap vehicles without distorting signage and faces. They also debated Craig's push toward Astro versus staying on WordPress, and Chris's plan to hire either a technical project manager or an in-house intermediate developer alongside E2M to fix slow build times.
Distilled from the transcript by claude-sonnet-5 · Jul 25
What came out of it
Decisions6
- CSS/styling will live at the theme level, not baked into the plugin, so it can be overridden easily
- Gavin will send the coupon plugin files for Chris's developer to add to the template and test with Sendgrid
- Chris will use his own agency ACF license key temporarily for testing rather than risk the shared Classic City key
- Next development focus will be automating the navigation bar phone/hours and location page CTA/schedule-online button via custom blocks
- Single-location logic will be built first, with multi-location handled as an exception rather than the default case
- Location pages will be built as duplicated home-page templates managed via Gutenberg custom post types so SEO/slugs stay consistent
Risks and blockers6
- Craig is increasingly drawn to migrating the whole site to Astro, which would be a major separate project and is stalling full commitment to fixing the WordPress process
- AI photo/image editing tools (Nano Banana, Adobe Firefly with Flux) consistently distort signage, faces, and unrelated parts of the image when swapping vehicles in auto shop photos
- E2M developers are inconsistent in skill level, causing rework (e.g. a developer replaced dynamic CSS variables with hardcoded pixel values, undoing mobile responsiveness)
- Last three site builds have taken over 60 hours each, well above the target build time
- Iframe-based scheduling widgets (Auto Ops) cache content across locations, making multi-location scheduling flows buggy and hard to QA
- Billing/hours need to stay within allocated scope so Craig doesn't flag rising costs on this work
Open questions4
- Will Local Jungle ultimately move to Astro or stay on WordPress long term?
- Should the next hire be a technical project manager or an in-house intermediate/senior developer?
- Is there a reliable AI tool that can swap out vehicles in shop photos without distorting signage, faces, or other elements?
- How should multi-location scheduling and navigation UX ultimately work (dropdown vs modal selection)?
Next steps6
- VendorSend the coupon plugin files to Chris LaFay's developer to integrate into the template
- MeTest the plugin on a staging site in SiteGround and connect emails via Sendgrid
- MeSend Gavin an ACF license key for testing purposes
- VendorBuild custom blocks for automated phone number, hours, address, and location-aware schedule-online CTA in the header/footer
- ClientSend sample iframe/API key code for the Auto Ops scheduling widget
- MeAsk agency coach if he has found a better AI tool for editing vehicle photos without distorting other elements
A record of what was agreed, not a task list — nothing here was scheduled.
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