A beautiful, simple, clean, and responsive Jekyll theme for academics
# Agent Guidelines for al-folio (v1.x)
**This file is the authoritative entry point for coding agents working in this repo.** Read it before making any change. It is intentionally short and tool-neutral; it links to the one place each longer-form fact lives.
`al-folio` v1.x is a **thin Jekyll starter, not a theme**. This repo owns starter wiring, example content, docs, and cross-plugin tests. All runtime β layouts, includes, Sass, Liquid tags, filters, feature JS β lives in versioned gems published under [`al-org-dev`](https://github.com/al-org-dev).
## Route your change
Find your change on the left; edit only what is on the right.
| Your change | Goes in |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Dependency pin, plugin activation, feature flag | this repo: `Gemfile` **and** `_config.yml` (both β see below) |
| Example/demo content, bibliography, data files | this repo: `_pages`, `_posts`, `_projects`, `_news`, `_teachings`, `_books`, `_data` |
| Documentation | this repo: `docs/` (long-form) or this file (agent rules) |
| Cross-plugin integration test, visual parity test | this repo: `test/integration_*.sh`, `test/visual/` |
| Plugin catalog metadata | this repo: `_data/featured_plugins.yml` |
| A layout, include, or Sass partial | the owning gem β start with `al_folio_core` |
| A Liquid tag or filter, or what a tag renders | the gem that registers it β see the [delegation table](docs/ARCHITECTURE.md#wrapper-to-tag-to-gem-delegation) |
| Feature behavior (search, math, charts, comments, cookies, icons, CV, distill, analytics, images, newsletter, citations) | that feature's gem β see [`docs/BOUNDARIES.md`](docs/BOUNDARIES.md) |
| Component/unit test for gem-owned behavior | the owning gem, not here |
| A feature with no existing owner | open a plugin proposal issue first, then a standalone plugin repo |
[`docs/BOUNDARIES.md`](docs/BOUNDARIES.md) is the authoritative area-to-gem table. [`docs/ARCHITECTURE.md`](docs/ARCHITECTURE.md) explains how the pieces connect.
## Stop sign
**If your change would create any of these paths in this repo, it belongs in a gem instead:**
```
_layouts/ _includes/ _sass/ _scripts/ assets/tailwind/ tailwind.config.js assets/webfonts/
```
`npm run lint:style-contract` fails CI when any of them exists here, and it also rejects `build:css` / `build:tailwind` npm scripts. Do not add a starter-local Tailwind or CSS build pipeline.
This restriction applies to **this repo only**. A user's own site created from this template _may_ legally shadow gem-owned files β see [local overrides: your site vs. this repo](docs/ARCHITECTURE.md#local-overrides-your-site-vs-this-repo).
## Three failures that produce no error message
Read [`docs/ARCHITECTURE.md`](docs/ARCHITECTURE.md#failure-modes-that-produce-no-error-message) for the full explanation. The short version:
1. **Features fail silently.** A feature renders only when its gem is loaded _and_ its flag is on _and_ the page opts in. Otherwise the Liquid tag emits an empty string β no warning, no error.
2. **`Gemfile` and `_config.yml` are two lists that must agree.** A plugin in only one of them is inert. Adding or removing a plugin means editing both. Repo dirs use hyphens (`al-folio-core`); gem/plugin ids use underscores (`al_folio_core`).
3. **This repo's effective baseurl is `/al-folio`.** `_config.yml` already sets it, so a plain `bundle exec jekyll build` is correct β that is what `deploy.yml`, `broken-links-site.yml` and `axe.yml` run. Passing `--baseurl /al-folio` is redundant but harmless; blanking the baseurl out is what renders the site unstyled with broken links. Dev server is at `http://localhost:4000/al-folio/`.
## Validated local command set
Run from the repo root, in this order:
```bash
bundle install
npm ci
npm run lint:prettier
npm run lint:style-contract
bundle exec jekyll build --baseurl /al-folio
bash test/integration_comments.sh
bash test/integration_plugin_toggles.sh
bash test/integration_distill.sh
bash test/integration_bootstrap_compat.sh
bash test/integration_upgrade_cli.sh
bash test/integration_css_minify.sh
bash test/integration_new_plugins.sh
npx playwright install chromium webkit
npm run test:visual
bundle exec al-folio upgrade audit
bundle exec al-folio upgrade overrides audit
bundle exec al-folio upgrade report
docker compose up -d
curl -fsS http://127.0.0.1:8080/al-folio/ >/dev/null
docker compose logs --tail=80
docker compose down
```
All seven `test/integration_*.sh` scripts are gated by `unit-tests.yml`; run the ones your change touches. Docker note: v1 uses `/srv/jekyll/bin/entry_point.sh` and serves from container-local `/tmp/_site` to avoid host bind-mount write deadlocks.
## Before you open a PR
- Keep starter work here; route runtime behavior to the owning plugin repo.
- Run `npm run lint:prettier` (Prettier with `@shopify/prettier-plugin-liquid`, `printWidth: 150`). `npx prettier . --write` fixes formatting.
- Keep docs aligned with v1 ownership, and keep each fact in one place β link rather than restate.
- If you create or keep local overrides of plugin-owned files, run `bundle exec al-folio upgrade overrides audit` and commit `.al-folio-overrides.yml` after review.
## Further reading
- [`docs/ARCHITECTURE.md`](docs/ARCHITECTURE.md) β how the starter and gems fit together, silent failure modes, the v1 config contract, local overrides.
- [`docs/BOUNDARIES.md`](docs/BOUNDARIES.md) β authoritative area-to-gem ownership table and PR triage playbook.
- [`docs/CONTRIBUTING.md`](docs/CONTRIBUTING.md) β contributor workflow and agent tooling.
- [`docs/README.md`](docs/README.md) β index of all user and maintainer guides.
- `.agents/skills/al-folio-bootstrap/SKILL.md` β new-site setup workflow.
- `.agents/skills/al-folio-v1-migration/SKILL.md` β customized-fork migration and override drift auditing.
- `.codex/skills` and `.claude/skills` are symlinks to `.agents/skills` for agent-specific discovery.