write-dossier

name	write-dossier
description	Use when writing or updating BEDC dossier essays under docs/dossier, especially bilingual Chinese/English philosophy articles that end with strict mathematical formalization.

Write Dossier

Goal

Create or update docs/dossier essays in the project dossier style: bilingual paired articles, metaphor-rich philosophical prose first, strict mathematical schema last, and full site integration.

Scope

• Work in docs/dossier.
• Create paired files:
  • English: <slug>.qmd
  • Chinese: <slug>.zh-CN.qmd
• Update both docs/dossier/index.qmd and docs/dossier/index.zh-CN.qmd.
• Update docs/dossier/_quarto.yml navigation when the article should be directly discoverable from the navbar.

Style

• Use dossier voice, not paper theorem voice: natural philosophy, concrete analogies, and readable sections.
• Use many metaphors when the user asks for philosophical articles: room, window, map, riverbed, loom, ledger, harbor, prism, clock city, stage, key, shadow, or other domain-fitting images.
• End with ## Strict Mathematical Form in English and ## 严格数学形式 in Chinese.
• The final section must be mathematically disciplined: define carriers, ledgers, equivalence relations, forcing judgments, gauge/representation quotients, and cannot-claim boundaries where relevant.
• Do not overclaim. For GR/QM/physics, write relative forcing claims of the form BEDC + observation ledger + admissible candidate class + audited probes => gauge/representation class, not unconditional derivation from the empty kernel.
• Preserve paired language links:
  • English file links to .zh-CN.qmd
  • Chinese file links to English .qmd
• Use the existing CTA pattern at the end when nearby dossier pages exist.

Front Matter Pattern

English:

---
title: "<Title>"
subtitle: "<Specific one-line thesis>"
author: "The Omega Institute"
date: YYYY-MM-DD
description: "A bilingual dossier essay on ..."
---

Chinese:

---
title: "<中文标题>"
subtitle: "<中文副标题>"
author: "The Omega Institute"
date: YYYY-MM-DD
lang: zh-Hans
description: "一篇中文 dossier: ..."
---

Use the actual current date only for newly authored dossier pages. Do not change dates on existing pages unless the user explicitly asks.

Workflow

1. Read nearby examples before writing:
   • docs/dossier/projection-geometry-and-the-closed-world.qmd
   • docs/dossier/projection-geometry-and-the-closed-world.zh-CN.qmd
   • docs/dossier/interface-constraint-section.qmd
   • docs/dossier/interface-constraint-section.zh-CN.qmd
2. Choose a semantic lowercase slug, no version/round labels.
3. Draft the English and Chinese files as parallel essays, not literal line-by-line translations.
4. Add both files to the matching listing.contents block in index.qmd / index.zh-CN.qmd.
5. If suitable, add the English page to _quarto.yml under the relevant navbar section. The site navbar currently uses English links; the page itself provides the Chinese switch.
6. Compare all .qmd files against the two listing blocks and add any real dossier essay that is missing. Exclude tool/project pages such as index*.qmd, paper.qmd, visualization.qmd, rule110-visualization.qmd, taste-evolutions.qmd, discovery-quality-sieve*.qmd, and structural-discovery-dna*.qmd.

Checks

Run:

PYTHONPATH=. python3 tools/test_dossier_runtime.py
git diff --check

For Quarto rendering, prefer rendering the touched pages:

quarto render docs/dossier/<slug>.qmd
quarto render docs/dossier/<slug>.zh-CN.qmd

If using quarto preview from a Codex worktree under .codex/worktrees, be aware that Quarto may discover zero project inputs because the path is under a hidden directory. Work around this by syncing the dossier folder to a non-hidden temporary directory and running preview there:

rsync -a --delete --exclude='.quarto/' --exclude='_site/' docs/dossier/ /Users/auric/newmath-dossier-preview/
cd /Users/auric/newmath-dossier-preview
quarto preview . --host 127.0.0.1 --port 4321 --no-browser

After index/listing edits, clear preview cache before restarting if the listing does not refresh:

rm -rf /Users/auric/newmath-dossier-preview/_site /Users/auric/newmath-dossier-preview/.quarto

Common Mistakes

• Adding a page to _quarto.yml but not to both listing blocks.
• Trusting Quarto cached preview after listing edits; restart preview if the Recent updates list looks stale.
• Writing a metaphor-only article with no final formal schema.
• Claiming GR/QM follows directly from BEDC without ledger, candidate, probe, gauge, and gap parameters.
• Creating English-only or Chinese-only pages unless the user explicitly asks.