publish-novel

name	publish-novel
description	Publish this Markdown novel project as a validated EPUB using the skill's bundled packaging script. Use when the author asks to publish, export, build, regenerate, package, or validate the novel or EPUB; when checking publication metadata, chapter readiness, covers, illustrations, generated output, or EPUB integrity; or when coordinating a missing cover before publication.

Publish Novel

Before running a bundled command, resolve <skill-dir> to the absolute directory containing this SKILL.md, and resolve <skills-dir> to its parent directory. Keep --project-root pointed at the active novel workspace, not at the skill or plugin installation.

Operating Contract

Turn an author request such as "Publish this novel" into the complete EPUB workflow. Do not ask the author to type shell commands. Run the bundled script yourself, verify the result, and report the artifact path.

Treat Markdown and project assets as canonical source. Treat published/epub/ and .epub files as generated output. Never repair a generated EPUB by hand; update source and republish.

Retain both outputs after a successful build. published/epub/ is the inspectable staging tree, while published/*.epub is the ZIP-based EPUB container intended for reading software. Rebuilding may replace the contents of the staging tree, but publication must not delete it after packaging.

Interpret publish as local EPUB generation only. Do not upload, distribute, email, release, or submit the book to a storefront or external service unless the author explicitly requests that separate action.

Workflow

1. Read Publication Context

Read:

• AGENTS.md
• project.md
• published/README.md
• publishable chapter filenames and frontmatter, plus image references needed for packaging
• style/visual-style-guide.md
• existing files under assets/cover/ and assets/illustrations/

Preserve the manuscript language and project terminology.

Do not load the full prose of every chapter into model context. Let the bundled script stream chapter bodies during rendering. Read chapter prose only when diagnosing a rendering, image, or metadata problem.

2. Run Preflight

Confirm:

• at least one chapter matches NNN.ascii-slug.md;
• chapter numbers and filenames are in the intended order;
• every chapter's H2 sections are exactly ## Synopsis, ## Draft, and ## Revision Notes in that order, with one non-empty, case-sensitive Draft outside fenced code;
• the requested manuscript is complete enough to publish;
• title, author or pen name, and language are known;
• all local Markdown image references inside Draft exist, and the selected cover exists;
• the output and staging paths remain under the intended project.

Run the story skill's strict structural audit before packaging:

python3 "<skills-dir>/novel-story-telling/scripts/check_continuity.py" \
  --project-root . \
  --strict

Stop on malformed dialogue markup or any other structural error. Canonical dialogue is an exact *“…”* range that may stand alone or share a paragraph with narration; interior thought is unquoted *…*, and cited wording uses ‘…’.

If any chapter is not final, list it and ask for confirmation before publishing unless the author explicitly requests a draft or proof EPUB.

If the title is empty or still a placeholder, ask for the publication title. If the author is missing, ask for the author or pen name; do not silently publish as Unknown Author without confirmation. Pass one-time metadata as script options. Update project.md only when the author asks to make it canonical.

3. Resolve The Cover

Find a cover in this order:

1. a path explicitly supplied by the author;
2. cover_image in project.md frontmatter;
3. assets/cover/cover.png, .jpg, .jpeg, or .webp.

If no cover exists, ask whether to create one or publish without one. When the author wants a cover, use $create-visual-asset, save it under assets/cover/, verify the final image, and resume publication. Do not block a coverless publication after the author confirms that choice.

4. Publish

Run the bundled script from the repository root:

python3 "<skill-dir>/scripts/build_epub.py" \
  --project-root .

Add only the options needed for confirmed metadata or output choices:

python3 "<skill-dir>/scripts/build_epub.py" \
  --project-root . \
  --title "Publication Title" \
  --author "Author or Pen Name" \
  --language ko \
  --cover assets/cover/cover.png \
  --output published/novel.epub

The script must:

• render only each numbered chapter's ## Draft content in filename order;
• fail before staging changes when the exact H2 sequence differs or Draft is missing, duplicated, or empty;
• exclude the title-container H1, Synopsis, and Revision Notes from manuscript rendering, while adding the canonical chapter title from frontmatter;
• render ordinary Markdown paragraphs as p.prose in a sans-serif stack and each canonical *“…”* speech range as <i class="dialog">, styled with a serif italic stack without forcing a paragraph boundary;
• render inline Markdown backtick ranges as fixed-width <code> text and use local CSS ::before and ::after content to show the opening and closing backtick glyphs to readers; these visible delimiters are a narrative marker for machine text that is evaluated literally, not disposable source syntax; place the complete inline code range on a subtle translucent background with a dark-mode override, while inheriting the reader's foreground color;
• render a standalone --- or legacy Markdown thematic break as a semantic <hr class="scene-break" /> paired with visible centered * * * text before list parsing;
• treat legacy thematic-break rendering as defensive compatibility only; canonical Draft source must use standalone --- and pass the strict audit;
• use reader-compatible CSS with no external font or stylesheet dependency;
• ignore template files;
• package block and inline local images;
• include the selected cover when present;
• keep staging inside published/epub/ by default;
• retain that staging tree after packaging;
• write published/novel.epub by default as a ZIP-compatible EPUB container;
• write mimetype as the archive's first, uncompressed member;
• validate the final archive automatically.

5. Verify And Report

Require the script's successful validation report. It checks:

• a non-empty ZIP-compatible EPUB;
• the first, uncompressed mimetype entry;
• required container, navigation, package, and stylesheet members;
• at least one rendered chapter;
• well-formed XML and XHTML;
• packaged targets for local href and src references.

Also inspect the generated chapter XHTML when changing the publisher or chapter markup rules. Confirm that editorial headings and text from Synopsis or Revision Notes are absent; every marked speech range becomes <i class="dialog"> even when narration follows in the same paragraph; unmarked thought remains <em>; inline <code> uses a fixed-width stack and visibly retains both backtick delimiters through CSS; and each scene break has a visible centered * * * ornament instead of being emitted as a list.

To validate an existing artifact without rebuilding, run:

python3 "<skill-dir>/scripts/build_epub.py" \
  --project-root . \
  --validate-only published/novel.epub

Report:

• the absolute EPUB path;
• title, author, and language used;
• chapter and packaged-image counts;
• whether a cover was included;
• confirmation that the staging tree was retained alongside the final EPUB;
• any warnings or intentionally accepted draft conditions.

Run git status --short and separate generated ignored output from source changes. Do not commit published/*.epub or published/epub/ unless the author explicitly asks.

Failure Handling

• Stop when no publishable chapter exists.
• Stop when a chapter has no unique, non-empty ## Draft section.
• Stop when a referenced local image is missing.
• Stop when the cover path is invalid.
• Stop when staging points outside a generated subdirectory of published/.
• Stop when the EPUB output points outside published/ or inside its staging directory.
• Stop when EPUB validation fails; report the exact member or reference and repair the canonical source or bundled script before rebuilding.
• Never claim publication success from file existence alone.