monument

# Monument Name a building in one line, and you get it rising piece by piece: on its real plan, phase by dated phase, every date and figure sourced. ## The one idea that matters **The building is the evidence.** Every phase is dated and cites a page you actually read. Every shape is measured or read from photos. Anything interpreted is said to be interpreted. A beautiful model of the wrong building, or of an invented history, is a failure. `<skill>` below is the folder that holds this file. The page needs no install: the viewer, Three.js and the fonts ship in `<skill>/kit`. It needs Node 20 or later to serve it. ## Before anything: check your tools The standard build needs web pages you can open and read, images you can inspect, and Node 20+. A local Chrome or Chromium makes the comparison sheet automatic; when it is unavailable, use the active browser to inspect and capture the same views. Never fall back to memory or search-result summaries. When changing the engine, its bricks or this skill, measure before claiming an improvement. Use the Parthenon and Coutances release references, run `node scripts/golden.test.mjs` and `node scripts/responsive.test.mjs`, and wrap comparable before/after commands with `node scripts/measure.mjs` as described in [references/measurement.md](references/measurement.md). Report token categories separately and leave them unknown when the host does not expose them; never estimate a saving. Keep the engine in JavaScript. `node scripts/profile.mjs` is the gate: it times the whole candidate surface — mass mesh generation, offline builds, the meshes instancing actually produces — and says whether a native or WebAssembly port could earn its upkeep. See [references/performance.md](references/performance.md). Declare what the sources say in `evidence.measurements` and run `node scripts/check.mjs`: it measures the building that was actually built — its counts, bays, diameters, drums and alignments — and fails with the quantity, both numbers and the source when the two disagree. A ledger row that claims `matched` may name the measurements backing it; then it is checked, not asserted. Run `node scripts/chronology.mjs` after any change to a phase, a moment or the order of the works: it builds the film and fails, naming the phase and the moment, when a card is pinned on a spire that is not up yet (it says from which `at` the pin stands on the building), when moments are listed out of order (the viewer would never show the earlier one), when phases are out of date order, or when a piece is laid with nothing under it. When a monument repeats the same brick, hoist what it repeats into a `catalogue` and let each element name its prototype with `"use"`; expansion is exact, so the building cannot change. Run `node scripts/catalogue.mjs <file> --stats` to measure a file's real cost before and after. The site is written in English; every other language is a dictionary in `i18n/` rendered into its own folder by `node scripts/build-site.mjs`, so `/fr/` is a real French site rather than a page that swaps its text at runtime. Mark the text with `data-i18n="key"`, with `data-i18n-html` when the sentence carries markup, or with `data-i18n-<attribute>` for a title or an aria-label, and put the translation in `i18n/<language>.json` — the build stops rather than shipping a half-translated page. The viewer reads its own language from `<html lang>` and the dictionary that sits beside its kit, so a translated viewer needs no second copy of the engine. Run `node scripts/i18n.test.mjs`, which also walks the built site and fails on a link that lands nowhere. For a measured round architectural member, prefer the declarative `profiledColumn` brick over writing a monument-specific mesh. Give it sourced diameter/height stations, the observed flute count and a chord-error tolerance; the engine keeps that architectural definition constant while producing adaptive LODs. Run `node scripts/geometry.test.mjs` whenever a curve or profile changes. See [references/geometry.md](references/geometry.md). ## When someone asks for a building `/monument <building, city, country>` in Claude Code, OpenCode or Antigravity, `$monument …` in Codex, or any request to see how a building was built. ### Standard build: detailed, focused, usually 8–15 minutes Use this mode for one named structure. Spend the time on the building itself: its silhouette, exact storey and bay counts, roof profile, openings, structure, materials, at least eight distinctive details and the human scale of its construction. **Do not add neighbouring houses, streets or map labels unless the user asks for context or it is essential to understand the building.** Context is not part of the default result. 1. **Scope it.** Build the named structure only. For an ensemble or whole site, state the larger scope and propose the main structure first. 2. **Generate the measured skeleton first.** Run `node <skill>/scripts/scaffold.mjs "<building>, <city>, <country>" --out monuments`. It resolves the named feature, downloads only its OpenStreetMap outline, chooses a conservative architecture family, writes the JSON and plan evidence, and produces a detailed present-day shell with openings. Open this result immediately. If the resolver finds no closed outline, do not substitute a nearby building: use an address, cadastral plan or user-supplied outline ([references/scaffold.md](references/scaffold.md)). 3. **Reuse before researching.** Open the closest existing example and the brick table. Reuse its measured structure and generators when they fit; do not repeat solved geometry. 4. **Research in one batch.** Open at least two authoritative pages from different sites and three useful photos from at least two sides. Take the photos from Wikimedia Commons with a recorded camera location (geosearch around the building finds them) and copy that location into the reference's azimuth and distance: validation opens every cited page and every photo, and refuses a photo that does not exist or whose viewpoint does not match where Commons says it was taken. Extract identity, dimensions, dated phases and at least eight visible features: the silhouette plus close details such as joints, frames, cornices, braces, fasteners, carvings or roof edges. For an ornament-led building (cathedral, palace, temple, richly articulated facade), add at least two close or medium-distance photos that actually show the signature portals, tracery, sculpture, cornice, tower stage or roof edge. Make a **detail ledger** before modelling: each recognised feature has a source, a photo reference, and a planned model element. Find evidence for the tools, temporary structures and human work of at least two construction phases. A search result is not a source ([references/fidelity.md](references/fidelity.md#detail-ledger-and-close-view-gate)). 5. **Replace the skeleton's estimates.** Check height, storeys, roof and massing against the sources. Keep the downloaded outline and rerun `plan.mjs`: it compares the model seen from above with the measured outline edge to edge and marks in red, in `plan.svg`, every edge more than 3 m off. Fix the model until no red remains outside the gaps you can name (90% of the edges within 3 m), and remove the scaffold warnings only when their uncertainty is resolved. Do not collect the surrounding block unless context was requested ([references/real-plan.md](references/real-plan.md)). 6. **Model coarse to fine, then human scale.** The footprint, orientation, openings and base mass already exist; spend the manual work on the true roof profile, structural system and signature details. Give every feature in `evidence.features` a visible counterpart, and every element its `provenance` (`measured`, `documented`, or `interpreted` with a `note`): the viewer's evidence mode colours each piece by it. A family brick is a starting scaffold, never the finished identity of an ornament-led facade: match the photographed bay count, vertical stages, portal or window profiles, buttresses and roof-edge rhythm before adding generic decoration. Match each ledger entry to the exact element index in `evidence.detailReview`; the final validator refuses an unfinished ledger generated by the scaffold. Use geometry for measurable profiles and repeated masonry; use a free, rectified Commons photo as a `relief` for photographed sculpture or tracery that boxes and existing bricks cannot faithfully render. When evidence does not resolve a detail, leave it deliberately simplified and record it as an uncertainty—never silently invent a plausible-looking motif. For at least two phases, add a sourced `phase.scene`: workers, material stacks, scaffolds, hoists and dust appropriate to the documented craft. Choose `facade`, `ring` or `tower` scaffold geometry from the surface being built: the viewer fits it to the pieces of the phase, raises it lift by lift with the masonry and takes it down when the phase ends. Choose its `material` from the period (`timber` before the industrial age, `steel` after), `base` when it stands on a roof or a storey, and `rise: "first"` when it was put up before the work; choose a period-appropriate `gin-pole`, `treadwheel` or `steam-crane`, which stands outside the scaffold unless placed, and set the lifting path so it climbs with the work. Put one construction moment close enough to see hands, joints or tools. Columns and every round form are turned pieces with their base and capital, never square posts; carving that geometry cannot render (tympana, statues, friezes, roses) is a free photo from Wikimedia Commons laid on the model as a `relief`, prepared and checked with `scripts/relief.mjs` and credited. Close the shell: no wall stops short of its roof, no roof ends open, no opening shows the void; check from every side and through the section view (`?section`). Raise the roof frame (`roofFrame`) in its phase with the system of its country and century, and add the interior works that marked the history (an altar, a screen, an organ, a statue) as `furnishing` and `relief` elements with an `inside` moment ([references/bricks.md](references/bricks.md#closed-shells-roof-frames-and-interiors)). Write a new architecture brick only for the detail the existing bricks cannot express ([references/fidelity.md](references/fidelity.md), [references/bricks.md](references/bricks.md), [references/format.md](references/format.md)). 7. **Give it one coherent visual language.** Keep `visualStyle.quality` at `standard` unless the user asks for a fast draft (`basic`) or a showcase capture (`cinematic`). Select the material preset that matches the building (photo-scanned woods, plasters, shingles, stones); use surface overrides sparingly. The viewer shows the monument alone in a studio, on a paper backdrop: no sky, ground, trees, water or setting to choose or to model ([references/visual-style.md](references/visual-style.md)). 8. **Write and open it.** Refine `monuments/<id>.json`, run the viewer, and play the complete timeline ([references/format.md](references/format.md)). 9. **One focused comparison, plus the close-view gate.** Fit each photo's viewpoint with `calibrate.mjs` on points recognised in it ([references/fidelity.md](references/fidelity.md)), then run `compare.mjs ... --pass 1 --quick`, inspect the three reference views with each photo laid over its capture (`overlay-<n>.jpg`), fix the visible gaps, rerun the same command to refresh the captures, and record `gaps`, `fixed` and `remaining`. For an ornament-led building, also compare each close or medium-distance photo from the ledger at its photographed scale: count bays and openings, trace the outer profile of each signature element, and inspect the material rhythm. Do not mark the ledger `complete` merely because a broad silhouette looks right; every entry must be `matched` or a named, sourced simplification must appear in both `remaining` and `uncertainties`. The quick comparison skips redundant phase screenshots; play the timeline once instead. If a long publication capture is interrupted, rerun it with `--resume` to reuse finished references, overlays and phases. 10. **Validate.** Run `node <skill>/scripts/validate.mjs --standard monuments/<id>.json`, then report what is measured, documented and interpreted. Give the user the viewer link with `?proof`: it opens the evidence mode, where every piece shows its provenance and each reference photo can be laid over the model. If the architecture needs a brand-new complex brick, say that the first build can take 20–35 minutes. Do not spend that time on decorative context. ### Centimetre build: from a capture Use this when the user wants the building to the centimetre, or has a scan, or can capture one. The standard build is good to decimetres where a photograph is fitted and to metres where only a figure is documented; a centimetre is a claim that needs a **capture** and **control**. Read [references/capture.md](references/capture.md) first: it says what the research of 2026 supports (photogrammetry for numbers, gaussian splats for the picture, feed-forward models such as VGGT and Depth Anything 3 only to bootstrap camera poses), how to shoot, and what may be claimed. 1. **Ask what exists.** A scan the user holds, a survey, a capture they can make. Search for a public one (Sketchfab, Europeana, the heritage authority) and say plainly when none is found. Do not turn a handful of Commons photographs into a "centimetre" model: they carry no control. 2. **Build the standard model first** (steps above). The scan does not replace it: it keeps the history, the timeline and the parametric elements; the scan is what it is measured against. 3. **Align.** `node <skill>/scripts/align-scan.mjs monuments/<id>.json <scan> --pairs '[[sx, sy, sz, mx, my, mz], …]'` with three or more pairs a few decimetres right; add `--rigid` for a scan scaled by control. It fits the scan, refines it by point-to-plane ICP and prints the model's distance to the scan overall and element by element. 4. **Correct the model where the scan says it is wrong**, element by element, worst p90 first, then align again. A residual is the model's distance to the scan: it is the building's only where the scan is good (its GSD and its control bound it). 5. **Record and show.** `--write` puts `scan` in the monument (file under `<id>.evidence/scan/`, matrix, fit); the viewer then offers **Captured** (`?scan`), which swaps the model for the splats. `validate.mjs --strict` asks the gallery for the scan's credit and its fit. 6. **Report in classes.** Say which elements are surveyed (a residual of a few centimetres against a scan with control), which are photo-fitted, documented or interpreted. Never write "centimetre" for the building as a whole. ### Publication build Use this only when the user asks for maximum documentation or wants to publish. Add at least three pages from two sites, four photos from three sides, each with its viewpoint fitted by `calibrate.mjs`, the complete plan evidence, phase captures and a second comparison pass. `node <skill>/scripts/validate.mjs --strict monuments/<id>.json` is the publication gate. A standard build is a valid local result; it is not publishable until strict validation passes. ## Rules - **Never invent.** No dates, foundations, architects, anecdotes or earlier states to fill a timeline. Phases follow the evidence, with no fixed number. Where the history of the works is thin, show the attested states and label any schematic construction as such. - **Explanation is not evidence.** A bottom-up animation does not prove the real order of works; say when a phase explains rather than documents. - **Unknown building**: explain what you searched and ask for an address, a link, a plan or a photo. Offer a hypothetical model only under that name. - **Keep what was reused.** Do not show a whole block demolished for a new storey: take the old roof off, raise the walls, put the new roof on. - **No roof without its frame.** A covering is never laid on nothing: every roof stands on a frame (ties, struts, purlins, rafters) that is raised before it and kept under it. A strut or a purlin that stands up through the shingles is as wrong as a roof on posts, and so is anything of the eaves (a gilded purlin on the tips of the brackets, a bracket, a soffit board) that shows above the surface of a roof lower than where it was drawn. `scripts/roof.test.mjs` holds this for Kinkaku-ji; hold your own building to it (the brick `roofFrame` frames a pitched roof). - **Daylight.** No night scene unless night lighting is itself the subject, and sourced. - **No look-alikes.** Never replace the requested building with a generic house, a variant of another monument, or its name on an existing model. - **Details beat scenery.** Use the detail budget on the requested building. Neighbours, roads and labels are opt-in context, never a completion requirement. - **No generic finish.** A recognisable family brick, repeated window, twin tower or decorative texture may establish a draft, but it cannot stand in for a photographed signature facade. Model the observed count, profile, depth and material rhythm, or identify the remaining simplification plainly. - **Real surfaces, not heaps of blocks.** A Gothic or masonry building asks for `"masonry": "mesh"` (see [references/geometry.md](references/geometry.md#continuous-masonry)): walls are continuous skins cut by the true outline of their openings, arches are curves, mouldings are sections swept along them, tracery is a plate pierced by lights, and the joints are drawn by the material at the size of the courses photographed. Boxes stay for what is built of timber and for what is not yet drawn. Keep a photographed relief where the carving is finer than a model can follow, and say so. - **One art direction.** Use the bundled materials and figures as a coherent semi-realistic museum set. Do not mix them with unrelated photorealistic, cartoon or low-poly packs. - **The scaffold is a start, not evidence of history.** It automates mapped geometry for buildings that have a usable outline; it does not infer dates, architects, hidden structure or past states. - **No invented spectacle.** A worksite tableau needs a source for its craft and temporary structures. Generic figures may communicate scale, but clothes, machines, scaffolds and methods must fit the sourced period; state any interpretation in `evidence.uncertainties`. - **Temporary works follow the building and the clock.** A curved wall gets a ring or arc scaffold, a facade gets a planar scaffold, and a pier gets a tower cage. Reveal it level by level and move the hoist with the work front; do not reuse one static rig across unrelated forms or periods. - **A centimetre needs a capture and control.** Without a scan aligned by `align-scan.mjs` and control points, never claim better than the photo fit (decimetres). With one, claim it only for the elements whose residual says so, and say that the scan shows the building of the day it was captured. - **Do not claim** exhaustive historical coverage or an "exact" model. ## Publish to the community gallery When the user asks to publish or share a monument ("publish this monument to the gallery"): 1. Ask for a title (default: the building's name), confirm the id, and ask for their GitHub name and the model that built it. 2. Show what will be sent: run `node <skill>/scripts/publish.mjs monuments/<id>.json --author <name> --model "<model>" --prompt "<their original request>"` without `--yes`, and show its output. It refuses a monument that fails `validate.mjs --strict`: a draft cannot be published. 3. On a clear yes, run it again with `--yes`. It forks `Gleaming0427/monument` with the GitHub CLI, adds `community/<id>/` (the file, its bricks and its `.evidence` folder) and opens the pull request. Give the user the link. Without a terminal or the GitHub CLI, point them to the "Submit a monument" form on the repository, with the file in a Gist. The gallery rebuilds every monument from its file and photographs it; bricks that come with a monument are reviewed by a maintainer first. ## The collection `<skill>/examples/` holds world-famous monuments built with the skill: `notre-dame-de-paris` (the Gothic bricks `basilica`, `twinTowerFront`, `roseFront` and `spire`, eight centuries from the choir of 1163 to the rebuilding after the 2019 fire, its portals, gallery of kings and west rose as photo reliefs, its oak frames, vaults, choir screens and great organ inside), `colosseum` (rings fitted to OpenStreetMap's 3D outline, built, then ruined), `leaning-tower-of-pisa` (three campaigns, with its lean over time), `eiffel-tower`, `chateau-de-chambord` (the Renaissance bricks `drumTower`, `lodgingRange`, `lanternon`, `lanternTower` and `doubleHelixStair`, in `kit/renaissance.js`; the plan fitted to OpenStreetMap's outline, eight phases from the works ordered in 1519 to the lanternons restored in 2023), and `osaka-castle` (the Japanese brick `tenshu`, in `kit/japanese.js`: five tiers of curved tiled roofs, gables and a black lacquered top tier on a battered stone base; the plan fitted to OpenStreetMap's outline, four phases from the walls of 1620 to the restoration of 1997). Each passes `validate.mjs --strict`, with its sources, outline, control plan, reference photos and comparison passes in `examples/<id>.evidence/`. Open the closest one before you start: it shows the level of detail and evidence expected. To share a construction as an animation, `node <skill>/scripts/record.mjs <id> --cam <azimuth>,<elevation>,<distance>,<x>,<y>,<z>` records it from the first piece to the last phase as a GIF and an MP4 (it needs Chrome and ffmpeg).