quest-forge

description	Forge a "quest-forge proposal" GitHub issue into a complete, validated epic-quest campaign in pages/_quests/codex/ and open one gated PR. Use when asked to "forge a quest from an issue", turn an epic-quest proposal into content, or driven by quest-forge.yml in CI. Composes the deterministic collector (forge_issue.py) + quest.instructions + brand-voice.
name	quest-forge
source_file	SKILL.md
title	Dedup first — never a second PR for the same issue:

You are running one forge pass: a single epic-quest proposal issue becomes one pull request carrying a complete, audit-passing quest campaign. This skill is the single source of loop behavior for both /forge-quest locally and the quest-forge.yml CI workflow, so a maintainer and the runner forge identically.

It ends in exactly one pull request (or a clean no-op with a reason), never an open-ended authoring spree.

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0. Inputs

• ISSUE — the proposal issue number (e.g. 365).
• Auth + model come from the runner (scripts/ai/run.sh + _data/ai.yml).

1. Collect (deterministic, before any prose)

python3 scripts/quest/forge_issue.py --issue "$ISSUE" --json /tmp/forge.json
gh issue view "$ISSUE" --json title,body,comments

/tmp/forge.json holds chapters (numeral, level, difficulty, xp, class, title), ledger (PR # + squash-merge SHA per merged branch), and badges. This manifest is your only license to quote a PR number or commit hash. Read issue comments too — a proposal is often updated (a 10th chapter, a new badge) rather than re-filed.

2. Load the law and the voice

• Structure: .github/instructions/quest.instructions.md — required frontmatter (§1), permalink rules (§3, epic/bonus → /quests/codex/<slug>/), required body sections (§4), validation (§9). This governs; do not deviate.
• Voice: run the brand-voice skill for the quests section and read _data/brand/sections/quest.md — the quest-fantasy profile (gamified, encouraging, emoji-rich; technical accuracy intact under the fantasy wrapper).
• Vocabulary: pages/_quests/codex/glossary.md (/quests/codex/glossary/) — the canonical fantasy↔technical lexicon. Take names from it; never mint a synonym for a term it already names; a new coinage is added there first (same PR), then used in the quest.

3. Plan the campaign (placement + manifest)

Decide the file set before writing. The hub is the campaign's epic_quest landing page; each chapter is a first-class main_quest placed at its binary level so it also surfaces on that level's hub (the campaign should run through the levels, not sit in one bucket):

File	type	path	permalink
hub	epic_quest	pages/_quests/codex/<campaign>.md	/quests/codex/<campaign>/
chapter N	main_quest	pages/_quests/<level>/<campaign>-NN-<slug>.md	/quests/<level>/<campaign>-NN-<slug>/

epic_quest MUST use the /quests/codex/ URL namespace (validator rule — it is the home of epic landing pages, not a lesser bucket). Each main_quest chapter lives in the directory of its proposal binary level:, which must match that level field. Map difficulty to the enum exactly (🟢 Easy/🟡 Medium/🔴 Hard/⚔️ Epic); map class to a skill_focus enum value (fullstack/devops/security/ data-engineering/…) — there is no "digital-artist" focus, fold it into fullstack. When a chapter's level theme differs from its topic (the proposal levels are a difficulty signal), add one line noting the campaign uses the level for progression.

4. Wire the dependency graph (warning-free)

• Hub → unlocks_quests: every chapter codex permalink. recommended_quests: the prequel epic if one exists.
• Chapters → chain with recommended_quests (previous chapter) + unlocks_quests (next chapter). Keep required_quests empty or same-/lower-level only: the network validator warns when a required prerequisite sits at a higher level than the quest, and the campaign's narrative order is not level-ascending.
• Every referenced permalink must exist by end of the PR (you are creating them) or carry a # planned quest suffix (side-quests still living in lifehacker.dev).

5. Author each file (the real work)

Per quest, in order (quest.instructions §4):

1. Italic fantasy hook + real-world stakes.
2. ## 🎯 Quest Objectives — - [ ] checkboxes (required; validator errors without it).
3. ## 🗺️ Quest Prerequisites and ## 🌍 Choose Your Adventure Platform where the topic is OS-dependent; every fenced block has a language tag.
4. Chapters with annotated code, knowledge checks, and a "🔁 Reproduce it" block linking the manifest's PRs/commits (bamr87/lifehacker.dev#42, bamr87/lifehacker.dev@5853ef43b) as the canonical reference build.
5. A Mermaid network diagram (prereq → this → unlocks).
6. ## 🎁 Rewards & Progression aligned with frontmatter rewards (progression_points = chapter XP; badges from the manifest).
7. ## 🔮 Next Adventures using canonical permalinks; ## 📚 Resource Codex.
8. ## 🕸️ Knowledge Graph footer with [[wiki links]] to the hub and neighbors.

Liquid safety (load-bearing). Jekyll runs Liquid before Markdown, so a code fence does not protect ${{ … }} / {{ … }} / {% … %}. Any code block or inline span that shows GitHub Actions expressions or Liquid syntax MUST be wrapped in {% raw %}…{% endraw %} (the convention 40+ existing quests already follow). An unguarded ${{ A || B }} is a Liquid syntax error that fails the required build — and the validator only checks that {% raw %} pairs balance, not that every expression is guarded, so the build is the real catch.

The hub additionally carries the quest-metadata table, the chapter index table (links to every chapter), the badge roster, the boss-fight gate, and the full build ledger table — quoted verbatim from the manifest.

6. Verify (do not skip)

make quest-data    # regenerate levels/tiers/order/network/navigation from the registry
make quest-audit   # content ≥70%, network integrity, freshness (must pass)

Fix every error before opening. make quest-audit SCORES every main_quest chapter (each must clear 70%) and network-/freshness-validates the whole campaign. The epic_quest hub lives in codex/, which tier-1 scoring skips — author it to the full quest structure anyway. If the audit reports stale data, you forgot make quest-data; run it and re-audit.

7. Open exactly one PR

# Dedup first — never a second PR for the same issue:
gh pr list --state open --label auto:quest --search "$ISSUE" --json number,title

git switch -c "quest/forge-issue-$ISSUE"
git add pages/_quests/codex _data/quests assets/data/quest-network.json
git commit -m "content(quests): forge epic quest from #$ISSUE"
gh pr create --label auto:content --label auto:quest --label automated \
  --title "content(quests): forge epic quest from #$ISSUE" \
  --body "$(printf 'Forged from #%s by the quest-forge skill.\n\n%s\n\nNever-merge: flows through quest-validation + content gates.' "$ISSUE" "$(python3 scripts/quest/forge_issue.py --issue "$ISSUE" --json /dev/stdout | python3 -c 'import json,sys;print(json.load(sys.stdin)["stats"])')")"
echo "<pr-url>" > pr-result.txt
gh issue comment "$ISSUE" --body "⚔️ Forged → <pr-url>. Review and merge to publish."

Then STOP. One issue, one PR, content-only diff (the smuggle guard in content-auto-merge.yml will reject it otherwise). Never merge; never touch .github/**, .claude/**, scripts/**, _config*.yml, _data/brand/**, .cms/**, or deps — flag those in the PR body instead.