protowiki-getting-started

name	protowiki-getting-started
description	Orientation for the ProtoWiki repo — what it is, the Vite + Vue 3 + Codex + GitHub Pages stack, where code lives, where skills live, and the first thing to do. Use when first opening this repo, when asked "what is ProtoWiki" or "how does this repo work", or when an agent needs a high-level map before doing anything else.

ProtoWiki — getting started

What this repo is

ProtoWiki is a prototyping playground for Wikimedia features. It is not a CMS, not a real wiki, not a deployed product. It exists so that designers, PMs, and engineers can stand up a realistic-looking Wikipedia / MediaWiki prototype in minutes, hand it to a researcher, and link it from a Phabricator ticket — using the same design system, the same fonts, and (optionally) the same real data as production.

Realism is the goal. The repo bundles:

• The Wikimedia Codex design system (Vue 3 components, CSS tokens, icons) so prototypes look right.
• Data utilities that talk to the live Wikipedia REST and Action APIs.
• Single-concern layout wrappers that paint each Wikipedia surface (chrome, article column, special-page shell, plain canvas) and compose by nesting — for the website and for the iOS / Android apps.
• A skills system under .agents/skills/ that documents every part of the repo for both humans and AI coding agents.

For the full component catalogue, see protowiki-components.

Tech stack

• Vite + Vue 3 (Composition API, <script setup>)
• TypeScript, non-strict (strict: false, allowJs: true) — optional for prototype authors; editors get autocomplete without build errors
• unplugin-vue-router — file-based routing under src/prototypes/
• @wikimedia/codex + @wikimedia/codex-design-tokens + @wikimedia/codex-icons
• Plain CSS (no preprocessor)
• Prettier + ESLint
• GitHub Pages for hosting (no server needed)

Where things live

protowiki/
├── src/
│   ├── main.ts             ← Vue mount + boot-time skin/theme setup
│   ├── App.vue             ← thin shell (RouterView)
│   ├── prototypes/         ← prototypes (each folder = one route)
│   │   ├── index.vue       ← home / gallery (auto-lists prototypes)
│   │   ├── template-chrome/index.vue
│   │   ├── template-dashboard/index.vue
│   │   └── template-homepage/index.vue
│   ├── components/         ← shipped components (wrappers, primitives, article, dashboard)
│   ├── composables/        ← useSkin / useTheme (read-only hooks)
│   ├── lib/                ← theming logic, helpers
│   └── styles/             ← global.css, wiki-skins/, dark.css
├── .agents/skills/         ← skills for both humans and agents (see below)
├── AGENTS.md               ← thin index pointing at the skills
└── README.md               ← human-friendly intro pointing at the same skills

There is no .cursor/rules/, no parallel resources/ folder, no CLAUDE.md. All non-code material is a skill. Skills are markdown that humans read and that AI agents auto-discover.

What to do next

If you want to…	Read…
Make a new prototype	protowiki-create-prototype
Prototype the iOS / Android apps rather than the website	protowiki-app-prototyping
Customize home gallery listing	protowiki-create-prototype → gallery-meta.md
Look up a component (wrappers, article surfaces, search bar…)	protowiki-components
Use a Codex component, token, or icon	codex-usage
Fetch real data from Wikipedia	wiki-apis
Snapshot an article + its skin CSS into the repo	protowiki-snapshot-data
Prototype VisualEditor-style editing (article template, suggestion mode)	protowiki-components → editors.md
Make light/dark or desktop/mobile previews	protowiki-skins + protowiki-theme
Deploy to GitHub Pages	protowiki-deploy

Local dev

npm install
npm run dev      # http://localhost:5173 — use this for prototyping

That's it — there's no registration step for new prototypes. Drop a folder under src/prototypes/ and the route is live. Gallery title and description must not be AI-generated — ask the author or omit; see protowiki-create-prototype. CI runs npm run build when you push or open a PR; you only need a local build to debug GitHub Pages issues — see protowiki-deploy.