Reference pack for Open Garden Planner's SHIPPED 3D + sun/shade subsystems (Phase 14, v1.24.5 – v1.24.12 — complete; epic #255 closed). Load this skill when MAINTAINING or debugging any of it: 3D view, Qt3D usage, sun path or solar position math, shadow projection/casting, shade or hours-of-sun heatmaps, object height property, seasonal/time-of-day sun animation, first-person walkthrough, or growth visualization. It is a reference, NOT a plan — its "TO BUILD" markers are historical and that code already exists. Also load when someone says "sun study", "shade map", "solar", "azimuth", "elevation angle", "shadow length", "height of fence/wall/tree", or asks which 3D engine to use. Contains verified repo asset inventory, the NOAA solar formulas with pinned reference numbers, Y-axis discipline for azimuth→scene conversion, and GO/NO-GO gates for the 3D engine spike.
The load-bearing architecture contract for Open Garden Planner: the invariant table, the module dependency map, the command-pattern write path, and the known weak points. Load this BEFORE designing any feature, adding a module or package, or touching serialization (.ogp / FILE_VERSION), undo/redo, layers, beds/containers/plant-parents, task status, plant sizing, rotation/resize geometry, or the agent_api (MCP) surface — and whenever you are asking "is this allowed architecturally?", "does an ADR already cover this?", or "which predicate / write path / chokepoint do I use?". Also load it before reviewing someone else's design.
Load when doing anything outward-facing for Open Garden Planner: writing or editing the README, release notes, announcements, wiki pages, or any public claim about capabilities; adding or upgrading a dependency (license-compatibility check); integrating or documenting an external service (Google Maps, plant APIs, weather); answering licensing questions (GPLv3, PyQt6, asset/texture licensing); positioning the project against other tools; or publishing benchmarks / accuracy claims. This skill is the anti-oversell guardian — it defines what may be claimed today, what must not be, and the trust obligations (checksums, unsigned installer, CI-owned releases) that come with every release.
The ambition map for Open Garden Planner — five open research/engineering frontiers where THIS project could advance the state of the art, each with the verified in-repo asset that makes it credible, the first three concrete steps, and a falsifiable "you have a result when…" milestone. Load this when: picking the next big direction; evaluating whether an idea is genuinely novel or already solved elsewhere; scoping Package D2/D3 (agent write tools, domain intelligence) or Phase-15+ ambitions (visual refresh, Phase 16 platform work); someone asks "what should this project do next" or "where is the frontier here"; or you are about to resurrect a retired idea and need to check whether it was deliberately killed. Everything in here is OPEN or CANDIDATE work — nothing in this file is shipped unless explicitly marked as an existing asset.
Evidence-based debugging via targeted verbose instrumentation. Apply at the first sign of any non-obvious bug — before theorising. Grows with each bug fixed in this project.
Catalog of every configuration axis in Open Garden Planner: QSettings keys (AppSettings), UI-state persistence (UiStateStore), environment variables (.env / OGP_GOOGLE_MAPS_KEY / QT_QPA_PLATFORM / PYTHONUTF8), project-file version + per-plan settings, hidden-feature toggles in code, tooling config (pyproject/ruff/mypy/pytest/pins/ogp.spec), and CI knobs. Load this when: adding or changing a setting or flag; wondering what a settings key does or what its default is; configuring environment variables or .env; touching the Preferences dialog; deciding whether a change needs a FILE_VERSION bump; or a feature seems mysteriously disabled (hidden panel, missing API key, default-off snap mode). Includes the "how to add a setting" checklist.
Fast symptom→cause→experiment triage for Open Garden Planner's recurring failure modes. Load this when: a bug is reported (by a user, manual tester, or reviewer); a test fails unexpectedly; CI is red while local is green (or vice versa); a test passes alone but fails in the full run; behaviour differs from what the code appears to do; a visual glitch appears on the canvas (mirrored text, ghost shapes, items drifting/jumping, handles that won't drag); an export (PNG/SVG/PDF/DXF) looks wrong or empty; the German UI shows English or mojibake; panels go stale or steal focus; the packaged exe crashes or a bundled service silently fails. This skill classifies the symptom against the project's hard-won pitfall chronicle so you fix from precedent instead of re-fighting a solved bug.
Dev-time discipline for adding or regenerating Open Garden Planner textures and 2D art (US-E9, #264). Load when: adding a fill-pattern texture; regenerating a texture (e.g. the known-seamed flagstone.png/glass.png); generating object art or 3D-era materials; choosing texture prompts/post-processing; or answering how assets get provenance and license clearance. The skill prescribes the house style, the mechanical tileability gate, and the provenance rules — assets without provenance don't merge.