31 lines
1.7 KiB
Markdown
31 lines
1.7 KiB
Markdown
# Explainer Markdown Rendering
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How an explainer renders as markdown — the fallback format when intake resolved `output:md`. Load at compose time (Phase 4), not earlier. Content rules match the HTML reference; only the presentation medium differs.
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## Hard invariants
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- **YAML frontmatter carries the metadata:** `title`, `date`, `input_shape` (concept / diff / idea / recap), `subject`, and `unverified: true` when Phase 2 fell back to model knowledge. Field names are stable — a future library layer indexes them.
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- **Pure markdown.** No HTML elements, no `<details>`, no inline styles.
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- **Display-only.** No exercise or quiz content in the artifact; the check-in lives in the session.
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- **Repo-relative paths** for any file reference; never absolute paths.
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## Show-n-tell in markdown
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Markdown's visual affordances are narrower than HTML's — compensate, don't skip:
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| Material | Show |
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|----------|------|
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| Architecture, relationships, boundaries | Fenced `mermaid` block (`flowchart TB`) |
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| Code behavior, a diff's mechanics | Fenced code block per hunk with a one-line *why* comment above each |
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| A process, lifecycle, or state change | `mermaid` state/sequence diagram or a numbered list |
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| A window of work (recap) | Date-ordered list, each entry: what changed and why it mattered |
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| A comparison or trade-off | Pipe-delimited table, prose verdict underneath |
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Never hand-draw box-drawing/ASCII diagrams — mermaid or prose. Diagrams complement prose; a reader who skips them still gets the full explanation in text.
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## Reading ergonomics
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- Lead each section with the point, then the mechanism, then the caveat.
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- Dense is good; long is not — one sitting's read.
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- Real code from the grounding evidence where it exists; language-tagged fences always.
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