diff --git a/src/components/Diagram.astro b/src/components/Diagram.astro
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..400fd8b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/components/Diagram.astro
@@ -0,0 +1,225 @@
+---
+// Hand-authored, theme-aware architecture diagrams rendered as inline SVG at build.
+// No client JS, no headless browser, no inline <style> — CSP-clean and themeable
+// via CSS custom properties (colours follow the site theme).
+
+interface Props {
+  name: string;
+  caption?: string;
+}
+const { name, caption } = Astro.props;
+
+type Node = {
+  x: number;
+  y: number;
+  w: number;
+  h?: number;
+  label: string;
+  sub?: string;
+  accent?: boolean;
+  dashed?: boolean;
+};
+type Edge = {
+  x1?: number;
+  y1?: number;
+  x2?: number;
+  y2?: number;
+  d?: string; // explicit path (elbows)
+  dashed?: boolean;
+  label?: string;
+  lx?: number;
+  ly?: number;
+};
+type Spec = { vb: string; nodes: Node[]; edges: Edge[] };
+
+const H = 64;
+
+const diagrams: Record<string, Spec> = {
+  "edge-ai": {
+    vb: "0 0 860 175",
+    nodes: [
+      { x: 12, y: 46, w: 150, label: "High-level design", sub: "the idea" },
+      { x: 212, y: 46, w: 150, label: "CD pipeline", sub: "single press" },
+      { x: 412, y: 46, w: 165, label: "Helm + manifests", sub: "end-state" },
+      { x: 655, y: 46, w: 180, label: "Edge K8s", sub: "GPU inference", accent: true },
+    ],
+    edges: [
+      { x1: 162, y1: 78, x2: 212, y2: 78 },
+      { x1: 362, y1: 78, x2: 412, y2: 78 },
+      { x1: 577, y1: 78, x2: 655, y2: 78, dashed: true, label: "readiness-gated", lx: 616, ly: 30 },
+    ],
+  },
+  "iac-fleet": {
+    vb: "0 0 620 232",
+    nodes: [
+      { x: 12, y: 40, w: 150, label: "Git source of truth", sub: "vars + code" },
+      { x: 212, y: 40, w: 160, label: "AWX / Ansible", sub: "single-touch" },
+      { x: 432, y: 40, w: 170, label: "Edge fleet", sub: "templated per-store", accent: true },
+      { x: 212, y: 150, w: 160, h: 58, label: "ACR / NVCR mirror", sub: "air-gapped images", dashed: true },
+    ],
+    edges: [
+      { x1: 162, y1: 72, x2: 212, y2: 72 },
+      { x1: 372, y1: 72, x2: 432, y2: 72 },
+      { x1: 292, y1: 150, x2: 292, y2: 106 },
+    ],
+  },
+  homelab: {
+    vb: "0 0 700 280",
+    nodes: [
+      { x: 12, y: 34, w: 158, h: 62, label: "Proxmox", sub: "PCIe passthrough" },
+      { x: 212, y: 34, w: 178, h: 62, label: "Talos / OpenShift", sub: "single-node clusters" },
+      { x: 432, y: 34, w: 160, h: 62, label: "ArgoCD", sub: "GitOps reconcile", accent: true },
+      { x: 12, y: 182, w: 210, h: 62, label: "Local AI · DNS · Obs", sub: "LLM · Pi-hole · Prometheus" },
+      { x: 282, y: 182, w: 172, h: 62, label: "Cloudflare Tunnel", sub: "outbound only", accent: true },
+      { x: 512, y: 182, w: 150, h: 62, label: "Internet", sub: "www.bztmon.com" },
+    ],
+    edges: [
+      { x1: 170, y1: 65, x2: 212, y2: 65 },
+      { x1: 390, y1: 65, x2: 432, y2: 65 },
+      { d: "M512 96 L512 139 L117 139 L117 182", dashed: true, label: "deploys", lx: 300, ly: 132 },
+      { x1: 222, y1: 213, x2: 282, y2: 213 },
+      { x1: 454, y1: 213, x2: 512, y2: 213 },
+    ],
+  },
+};
+
+const captions: Record<string, string> = {
+  "edge-ai": "Design → single-press pipeline → readiness-gated GPU inference at the edge",
+  "iac-fleet": "One source of truth → AWX/Ansible → identical edge nodes, even air-gapped",
+  homelab: "Bare metal → GitOps clusters → services, exposed outbound-only via a tunnel",
+};
+const spec = diagrams[name];
+const cap = caption ?? captions[name];
+---
+
+{
+  spec && (
+    <figure class="diagram" data-reveal>
+      <svg viewBox={spec.vb} role="img" aria-label={cap ?? `${name} architecture diagram`} class="diagram__svg">
+        <defs>
+          <marker id="dg-arrow" viewBox="0 0 10 10" refX="8.5" refY="5" markerWidth="7" markerHeight="7" orient="auto-start-reverse">
+            <path d="M0 0 L10 5 L0 10 z" fill="currentColor" />
+          </marker>
+        </defs>
+
+        <g class="dg-edges">
+          {spec.edges.map((e) => (
+            <>
+              {e.d ? (
+                <path d={e.d} class:list={["dg-edge", e.dashed && "dg-edge--dashed"]} marker-end="url(#dg-arrow)" />
+              ) : (
+                <line
+                  x1={e.x1}
+                  y1={e.y1}
+                  x2={e.x2}
+                  y2={e.y2}
+                  class:list={["dg-edge", e.dashed && "dg-edge--dashed"]}
+                  marker-end="url(#dg-arrow)"
+                />
+              )}
+              {e.label && (
+                <text x={e.lx} y={e.ly} class="dg-edge-label" text-anchor="middle">
+                  {e.label}
+                </text>
+              )}
+            </>
+          ))}
+        </g>
+
+        <g class="dg-nodes">
+          {spec.nodes.map((n) => {
+            const h = n.h ?? H;
+            const cx = n.x + n.w / 2;
+            return (
+              <g class:list={["dg-node", n.accent && "dg-node--accent"]}>
+                <rect
+                  x={n.x}
+                  y={n.y}
+                  width={n.w}
+                  height={h}
+                  rx="10"
+                  class:list={["dg-box", n.dashed && "dg-box--dashed"]}
+                />
+                <text x={cx} y={n.sub ? n.y + h / 2 - 4 : n.y + h / 2 + 5} class="dg-label" text-anchor="middle">
+                  {n.label}
+                </text>
+                {n.sub && (
+                  <text x={cx} y={n.y + h / 2 + 16} class="dg-sub" text-anchor="middle">
+                    {n.sub}
+                  </text>
+                )}
+              </g>
+            );
+          })}
+        </g>
+      </svg>
+      {cap && <figcaption class="diagram__caption mono">{cap}</figcaption>}
+    </figure>
+  )
+}
+
+<style>
+  .diagram {
+    margin: var(--space-6) 0;
+    padding: var(--space-5);
+    background: var(--bg-soft);
+    border: 1px solid var(--border);
+    border-radius: var(--radius);
+  }
+  .diagram__svg {
+    width: 100%;
+    height: auto;
+    overflow: visible;
+  }
+  .diagram__caption {
+    margin-top: var(--space-4);
+    text-align: center;
+    font-size: 0.72rem;
+    color: var(--text-faint);
+  }
+
+  /* Edges */
+  .dg-edges {
+    color: var(--text-faint);
+  }
+  .dg-edge {
+    stroke: var(--text-faint);
+    stroke-width: 1.6;
+    fill: none;
+  }
+  .dg-edge--dashed {
+    stroke: var(--accent);
+    stroke-dasharray: 5 4;
+  }
+  .dg-edge-label {
+    fill: var(--accent);
+    font-family: var(--font-mono);
+    font-size: 11px;
+  }
+
+  /* Nodes */
+  .dg-box {
+    fill: var(--surface);
+    stroke: var(--border-strong);
+    stroke-width: 1.4;
+  }
+  .dg-box--dashed {
+    stroke-dasharray: 5 4;
+    fill: transparent;
+  }
+  .dg-node--accent .dg-box {
+    stroke: var(--accent);
+    fill: var(--accent-dim);
+  }
+  .dg-label {
+    fill: var(--text);
+    font-family: var(--font-mono);
+    font-size: 14px;
+    font-weight: 600;
+  }
+  .dg-sub {
+    fill: var(--text-dim);
+    font-family: var(--font-sans);
+    font-size: 11px;
+  }
+</style>
diff --git a/src/components/Hero.astro b/src/components/Hero.astro
index a692a96..4234817 100644
--- a/src/components/Hero.astro
+++ b/src/components/Hero.astro
@@ -90,4 +90,37 @@ import { cvAvailable } from "../lib/assets";
     flex-wrap: wrap;
     gap: var(--space-3);
   }
+
+  /* Staggered entrance — CSS-only (runs with JS off), motion-aware. */
+  @media (prefers-reduced-motion: no-preference) {
+    .hero__eyebrow,
+    .hero__title,
+    .hero__positioning,
+    .hero__tags,
+    .hero__cta {
+      animation: heroIn 0.7s var(--ease) both;
+    }
+    .hero__title {
+      animation-delay: 0.06s;
+    }
+    .hero__positioning {
+      animation-delay: 0.14s;
+    }
+    .hero__tags {
+      animation-delay: 0.22s;
+    }
+    .hero__cta {
+      animation-delay: 0.3s;
+    }
+  }
+  @keyframes heroIn {
+    from {
+      opacity: 0;
+      transform: translateY(12px);
+    }
+    to {
+      opacity: 1;
+      transform: none;
+    }
+  }
 </style>
diff --git a/src/pages/projects/[slug].astro b/src/pages/projects/[slug].astro
index d8da119..693e4e5 100644
--- a/src/pages/projects/[slug].astro
+++ b/src/pages/projects/[slug].astro
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 ---
 import Layout from "../../layouts/Layout.astro";
+import Diagram from "../../components/Diagram.astro";
 import { getCollection, render } from "astro:content";
 import type { GetStaticPaths } from "astro";
 
@@ -40,6 +41,8 @@ const { Content } = await render(entry);
         )}
       </header>
 
+      {p.diagram && <Diagram name={p.diagram} />}
+
       <div class="prose case__body" data-reveal>
         <Content />
       </div>