claude/.claude/memory/learnings.md

type	entry_prefix	schema	rules
learnings_registry	LRN	id date pattern context future_application LRN-XXX YYYY-MM-DD string (what was observed, abstracted) string (where/when it happened - concrete) string (when to recall this)	Capture learnings that apply beyond current task. Abstract from incident — pattern reusable, not one-shot fact. Link to source (commit, file, PR) when possible. Replaces previous LESSONS.md format. Old file empty — no content to migrate.

Learnings registry (LRN)

Index

ID	Date	Pattern	Applies to
LRN-001	2026-04-22	rtk shape-compression breaks pipes	any pipeline chaining rtk curl/cat/read into jq, python -c, awk
LRN-002	2026-04-23	Moving report-file paths requires grepping bash READS, not just WRITES	any refactor that moves a generated file used by a dispatcher
LRN-003	2026-04-27	Claude Code disable* settings use sentinel string "disable", not boolean	any change to permissions.defaultMode or related blocker keys
LRN-004	2026-04-27	framer-motion rebranded motion Nov 2024 — different packages per framework	any new project recommending animation lib; auditing legacy imports
LRN-005	2026-05-03	claude plugin install does NOT enable — separate claude plugin enable required	every plugin installer targeting ALWAYS-ON status
LRN-006	2026-05-03	caveman-shrink (and any MCP middleware proxy) non-functional without upstream wrapper	any MCP middleware/proxy package — never claude mcp add it bare
LRN-007	2026-05-06	toggle-external.sh enable missed source-only state (3rd lifecycle case)	toggle scripts for tools with separate install + symlink steps
LRN-008	2026-05-06	Biggest skill-quality wins from edge-case tables, not workflow rewrites	any skill <85 — first check for FAILURE PATHS / EDGE CASES / ERROR HANDLING section
LRN-009	2026-05-06	Dry-run scoring noise wrongly triggers reverts on already-strong skills	darwin-skill ratchet on skills >91 — relax or use real subagent eval
LRN-010	2026-05-06	~/.claude/skills,agents symlink to Documents/claude — git from ~/.claude fails	any optimization or batch edit on personal skills/agents
LRN-011	2026-05-07	Single subagent emits N independently-gated scores → labeled extraction + axis-aware loop + per-axis escalation	any audit pipeline shipping multiple gated metrics from one subagent
LRN-012	2026-05-07	Bash heredoc + stdin pipe collision = silent empty output	any shell pipeline piping data into python3 - <<'PY' ... PY (or any heredoc'd interpreter)
LRN-013	2026-05-07	marked CLI 16.x ignore stdin, dump own cli.js source	any shell MD→HTML via npx marked — use -i FILE not stdin
LRN-014	2026-05-11	Pandoc base gfm strips header id attrs — need gfm+gfm_auto_identifiers	any MD→HTML/PDF with cross-references ([§4](#nap)) via pandoc
LRN-015	2026-05-11	BrightLocal Free Tools retired 2026 — Moz Local Citation Checker is free replacement	client SEO/NAP docs — re-validate tool URLs + free-tier status annually
LRN-016	2026-05-11	Pandoc GFM checkbox markup breaks adjacent-sibling CSS — target li > input directly	styling task-list checkboxes in pandoc-rendered HTML/PDF
LRN-017	2026-05-12	Thin-dispatcher SKILL.md round-1 win = fallback + frontmatter triggers (+15 to +30)	any /darwin-skill round-1 on a dispatcher SKILL.md
LRN-018	2026-05-12	Darwin eval subagents drift on total math — recompute in main thread	any subagent-driven SKILL.md rescore
LRN-019	2026-05-15	Deployable-project doc split: README dev-quickstart + DEPLOY 14-section prod-VPS topology	any onboard/doc-syncer/scaffold producing docs for a deployable project

---

LRN-001 — rtk shape-compression silently breaks downstream parsers

• Date: 2026-04-22
• Pattern: when tracking tool (rtk) intercepts stdout and returns schematized/compressed representation instead of raw payload, every downstream parser breaks silently — user (or LLM) never sees rtk's output, only parser error.
• Context: rtk curl replaces raw JSON output with tokenized version, regardless of TTY vs pipe. Claude Code hooks auto-rewrite curl → rtk curl, so behavior impossible to anticipate without knowing hook.
• Future application: for any tool auto-rewriting standard commands, explicitly verify pipe behavior. Documented workaround: exclude_commands=["curl"] in ~/.config/rtk/config.toml, or rtk proxy. See BLK-001.

LRN-002 — Moving report-file paths requires grepping bash READS, not just WRITES

• Date: 2026-04-23
• Pattern: when moving write path of generated file (report, artifact, cache), must also grep places that READ that file — not only those that write it. Dispatchers (orchestrator skills dispatching to agent then parsing result) typically contain bash commands like test -s X.md, grep ... X.md, wc -l X.md — refs invisible if only grep for "write" or "output path".
• Context: .claude/audits/ refactor (commit 5c5e82c). First pass: updated write paths across 5 skills (seo/geo/harden/validate/code-clean) and 3 agents. User asked for verify-gate. They re-grepped, found 10+ bare bash refs (e.g. test -s HARDEN.md, grep -oE ... VALIDATE.md) missed — dispatchers broken (looking at project root while agent writing to .claude/audits/). Fixed in commit 5c5e82c (bundled with same commit).
• Future application:
  • Before declaring file-path migration "complete", grep basename (grep -rn "HARDEN\.md") plus full path — catch bare bash usages.
  • If file used in pipelines (test, grep, wc, cat, head), search for those verbs explicitly.
  • Verify-gates save work: one extra round forced exhaustive re-grepping. Without it, two dispatchers shipped broken.

LRN-003 — Claude Code disable* settings use sentinel string "disable", not boolean

• Date: 2026-04-27
• Pattern: Claude Code blocker-style settings (disableAutoMode, disableBypassPermissionsMode) use literal string "disable" as sentinel. Key absent = feature available; value "disable" turns blocker on. Any other value (including false, true, null) has no effect — doc explicitly states this.
• Context: switching permissions.defaultMode to "auto" while disableAutoMode: "disable" still present would have failed at startup ("auto mode unavailable"). Naming disable<Foo>: "disable" reads ambiguously — easy to assume boolean toggle and leave key in place.
• Future application:
  • Before changing defaultMode, audit matching disable* key in same permissions block. If present with value "disable", remove it.
  • Same logic for bypassPermissions mode and disableBypassPermissionsMode.
  • Don't trust doc's naming — read value semantics. Sentinel strings beat booleans here because harness can distinguish "unset" from "explicitly off" (admin policy).
• Reference: commit 1421578, doc https://code.claude.com/docs/en/settings.

LRN-004 — framer-motion rebranded motion (Nov 2024) — different packages per framework

• Date: 2026-04-27
• Pattern: framer-motion renamed motion November 2024. Rename not cosmetic: bundles React (motion/react), Svelte, vanilla-JS support under single npm package, while Vue gets own parallel package motion-v. Legacy package framer-motion still installs and works but in maintenance mode — recommending it in new framework default locks projects into legacy import paths day one. Detection of "is animation already covered" must include both names plus broader anim ecosystem (gsap, lottie-react, react-spring, popmotion, @formkit/auto-animate) to avoid double-installs.
• Context: building animation-lib auto-install in /init-project and /onboard. Initial user phrasing "framer-motion" (old name remembered). Picking package name without verifying rename would have shipped legacy imports in every new scaffold.
• Future application:
  • For React / Next.js / Remix / Astro+React / Svelte: motion (import { motion } from 'motion/react').
  • For Vue 3 / Nuxt: motion-v (separate package, separate API).
  • For React Native: do NOT recommend motion — use react-native-reanimated (motion targets DOM).
  • When auditing existing projects, check both framer-motion and motion keys in package.json deps; treat either as "animation already covered".
  • Before adopting any "industry default" lib in framework, verify canonical package name current — naming churn (rebrand, scope change @org/lib, fork) common in JS land.
• Reference: helper lib/animation-lib-check.sh, BDR-005.

LRN-005 — claude plugin install does NOT enable — claude plugin enable separate step

• Date: 2026-05-03
• Pattern: Claude Code CLI splits "available" from "active" for marketplace plugins. claude plugin install --scope user name@source only copies plugin into ~/.claude/plugins/cache/<marketplace>/<plugin>/<version>/. Does NOT write name@source: true into user's settings.json:enabledPlugins map. Without explicit claude plugin enable name@source, plugin sits dormant — installed but unloaded. Symmetric with claude plugin disable, which keeps cache and only removes enabledPlugins entry.
• Context: discovered auditing why security-guidance and superpowers were ✘ disabled in claude plugin list despite project's install-plugins.sh summary banner declaring them "ALWAYS ON". Root cause: install_plugin() only ran claude plugin install, never enable. Bug stayed invisible because hardcoded printf "│ ✅ ON : security-guidance rtk superpowers │" in session-start.sh printed same names regardless of actual state — lying banner agreed with lying install.
• Future application:
  • For any plugin meant ALWAYS ON, follow claude plugin install with claude plugin enable name@source (idempotent — no-op if already enabled).
  • Detect "actually enabled" via enabledPlugins[name@source] === true in settings.json, NOT presence of cache dir. Pattern implemented in lib/detect-plugins.sh:plugin_enabled() (filesystem grep, no subprocess).
  • Any banner / status display claiming plugin on must read state, never hardcode names. Hardcoded labels turn single bug into two co-conspiring bugs masking each other.
• Reference: commit 2ec7935, lib/detect-plugins.sh:plugin_enabled, install-plugins.sh:enable_plugin().

LRN-006 — caveman-shrink (and any MCP middleware proxy) needs upstream wrapper to function

• Date: 2026-05-03
• Pattern: some MCP packages are middleware proxies, not standalone servers. They wrap upstream MCP server and transform its responses (e.g. caveman-shrink compresses prose fields). Running them bare via claude mcp add proxy-name -- npx -y proxy-pkg registers server that errors immediately with "missing upstream command" — every health check fails, and Claude Code reports MCP broken until human intervenes. CLI claude mcp add doesn't validate that configured command launches working stdio MCP, so bad registration silently lands.
• Context: when adding caveman, upstream installer auto-registers claude mcp add caveman-shrink -- npx -y caveman-shrink and prints "registered. wrap an upstream by editing the mcpServers entry". Following that flow leaves user with permanently failing MCP entry until they realize they must edit ~/.claude.json manually.
• Future application:
  • For any MCP that is proxy/middleware (read package docs for "upstream", "wraps", "proxy"), register under DERIVED name <proxy>-<upstream> with upstream baked into args. Example for caveman-shrink wrapping filesystem server:

    claude mcp add caveman-shrink-fs --scope user -- \
      npx -y caveman-shrink npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem /path
    

  • Detection of "is this MCP correctly set up?" must look for the derived name (caveman-shrink-*), not the bare proxy name. Bare-name registration is treated as broken.
  • Default install scripts should NOT auto-register middleware MCPs — print the snippet for the user to choose an upstream. See install-plugins.sh STEP 5.5.
• Reference: commit 9b20b84, lib/detect-plugins.sh:detect_caveman_shrink, install-plugins.sh STEP 5.5 MCP block.

LRN-007 — toggle-external.sh enable missed source-only state

• Date: 2026-05-06
• Pattern: lib/toggle-external.sh enable <tool> for npx/external skills (darwin-skill, find-skills, emil-design-eng) handled 2 states only: symlink in skills-disabled/ → move to skills/, or symlink in skills/ → already enabled. Missed 3rd: source dir at ~/.agents/skills/<tool> but no symlink. First-run after make plugin lands here until bash link.sh runs. enable errored not installed — run: make plugin — misleading, plugin already installed.
• Context: user ran ./lib/toggle-external.sh enable darwin-skill after fresh install. ~/.agents/skills/darwin-skill/ populated by install-plugins.sh STEP 8.5 npx call, but link.sh (separate step) not run, so skills/darwin-skill symlink never created. Fix lib/toggle-external.sh:161-179 — add elif [ -d "$src" ] branch creating symlink direct when source dir present. Error message now show resolved source path.
• Future application:
  • Any toggle script for tools with separate install + symlink steps must check 3 states: disabled-dir, enabled-dir, source-only. Source-only branch create symlink in place, not fail.
  • Error messages name path checked, not abstract tool name — caller verify install vs symlink state without rereading script.
  • Symmetric pairs (enable/disable) both handle same lifecycle states; missing state in one half = silent dead end.
• Reference: lib/toggle-external.sh:161-179, link.sh:69-83, install-plugins.sh:598-633 STEP 8.5.

LRN-008 — biggest skill-quality wins come from edge-case tables, not workflow rewrites

• Date: 2026-05-06
• Pattern: darwin-skill round 1 across 18 personal skills. Top 4 gains (analyze +18.5, skills-perso +11.9, refactor +11.0, hotfix +9.0) all from same shape: add 1-page failure-mode table (file-not-found, malformed input, partial state, denied user input) with concrete action per row. Skills already had clean happy-path workflows; D3 (edge cases) was systemic gap.
• Context: most personal skills delegate to single agent file. Workflow steps already explicit. Missing: explicit "what when X unexpected" rows. Adding 5-12 row table with | situation | action | shape moved D3 from 3-7 → 9-10 and total +5 to +18.
• Future application:
  • Skill scoring <85: first inspect agent file for EDGE CASES / FAILURE PATHS / ERROR HANDLING section. Absence = strong predictor of D3 weakness.
  • Template: rows for target not found, input malformed, tool/API timeout, user denies action, partial output, permission denied. Map each → fallback / retry / ask-user / fail-fast.
  • Costs ~15-50 lines, unlocks +5 to +15 score.
• Reference: .claude/audits/DARWIN-SKILL-OPTIMIZATION.md, commits 649351b, eb34627, 1768d04, ef87074, a3f28d5.

LRN-009 — dry-run scoring noise wrongly triggers reverts on already-strong skills

• Date: 2026-05-06
• Pattern: darwin-skill ratchet rule = revert if new < old. Dry_run scoring (subagent reads SKILL.md, mentally simulates, scores 8 dims) has ±1pt noise per dim per re-eval. Skill at 91-94 has small headroom, so single noisy -1 on D2 flips total from +1 to -1 (false revert). code-clean + doc both reverted with objectively useful content (empty-approval branch, README/DEPLOY templates) — revert was dry_run noise artifact, not real regression.
• Context: ratchet preserves only commits with strict total > old. For dry_run near ceiling, too strict. Real subagent eval would have lower noise floor since output quality differences observable.
• Future application:
  • Skills baseline >91: skip optimization (diminishing returns), OR use real subagent eval not dry_run, OR relax ratchet to "new ≥ old - 1" with manual diff review.
  • Edits to high-scoring skills must be minimal (1-3 lines, surgical) so D2 (workflow clarity) not perturbed by added bulk.
  • When reverting content-rich change, log content elsewhere (~/.claude/notes/) so work not lost — second smaller patch can reintroduce idea.
• Reference: .claude/audits/DARWIN-SKILL-OPTIMIZATION.md, commits 63e08f9→822d437 revert (code-clean), c7b8522→765d1c1 revert (doc).

LRN-010 — ~/.claude/skills + ~/.claude/agents symlink to /home/bchanot-ubuntu/Documents/claude

• Date: 2026-05-06
• Pattern: editing ~/.claude/skills/<x>/SKILL.md or ~/.claude/agents/<x>.md modifies file at /home/bchanot-ubuntu/Documents/claude/{skills,agents}/. ~/.claude is empty config dir with symlinks; actual git repo + working tree is in Documents/claude. git add from ~/.claude fails with pathspec is beyond a symbolic link. Must operate git from Documents/claude.
• Context: darwin-skill run created branch in ~/.claude first (separate git repo, mostly empty). Real branch with skill changes had to be created in Documents/claude. Two repos, two branches.
• Future application:
  • Any optimization or batch edit on personal skills/agents operates from /home/bchanot-ubuntu/Documents/claude for git to track changes.
  • readlink ~/.claude/skills + readlink ~/.claude/agents first if unsure. Both point to Documents/claude/{skills,agents}.
  • Don't waste branch in ~/.claude — nothing to track for skill content.
• Reference: .claude/audits/DARWIN-SKILL-OPTIMIZATION.md, branch auto-optimize/skills-20260506-1730 in Documents/claude.

LRN-011 — Single subagent emits N independently-gated scores: pattern

• Date: 2026-05-07
• Pattern: when one subagent produces 2+ scores that each must clear independent thresholds (e.g. /seo subagent → SEO classique + GEO scores in same SEO.md), orchestrator must:
  1. Extract each score via labeled grep (extract_score_labeled f "Score SEO" + "Score GEO") — never fall back to "first /20 found" (collapses scores or fakes duplicate).
  2. Loop continuation: while (any axis < threshold) AND iter ≤ MAX. Single-axis condition exits early while other axis still below.
  3. Re-dispatch prompt labels each axis with current score + PASS/FAIL state, plus axis-specific fix list. Generic "improve the audit" wastes iterations on already-passing axis.
  4. Escalation prompt names affected axes explicitly. User chooses per-axis (continue / stop / override per axis).
  5. Override transparency file lists axes separately (e.g. SEO classique: NOT overridden, GEO (IA): overridden).
  6. Backward compat: allow_fallback flag — fall back to generic single-score parse for primary axis (legacy compat) but NOT for secondary axis (UNKNOWN forces re-dispatch with explicit format demand).
• Context: client-handover pipeline gates SEO + GEO independently (BDR-010). Both scores live in same .claude/audits/SEO.md, written by one /seo subagent in one dispatch. Naive "extract first /20" collapsed both into SEO classique value — gate fired on SEO only. Pattern above generalizes to any future audit shipping multiple gated metrics from one subagent (e.g. /harden could split TLS + headers + redirects).
• Future application:
  • Any audit subagent emitting multiple scores → use labeled extractor pattern + axis-aware loop + per-axis escalation. Never collapse to single score for gate.
  • When designing new audits with multiple metrics, mandate labeled score format in skill SKILL.md (e.g. Score <axis> : X.X / 20). Avoids retrofit later.
  • When 2+ scores share one subagent, prompt template lists both PASS/FAIL state + axis-specific fix categories. Otherwise subagent wastes iterations on passing axis.
• Reference: agents/client-handover-writer.md (extract_score_labeled STEP 3, axis-aware loop STEP 4, escalation STEP 4, threshold strictness STEP 8 SEO.md branch). BDR-010.

LRN-012 — Bash heredoc + stdin pipe collision = silent empty output

• Date: 2026-05-07
• Pattern: when running an inline-heredoc'd interpreter — python3 - <<'PY' ... PY, bash <<'SH' ... SH, node -e <<'JS' ... JS etc. — the heredoc IS the interpreter's stdin. Any data piped from upstream is silently discarded. Symptom: sys.stdin.read() (or equivalent) returns the heredoc body itself (often empty after the script consumes it via the read), and the produced output is empty. Exit code is 0, no error message — silent failure. Diagnose via bash -x trace: you see the python ran, but no upstream data ever reached it.
  • Anti-pattern (broken): printf '%s' "$DATA" | python3 - <<'PY' \n template = sys.stdin.read() \n ... \n PY
  • Fix 1 (env var): DATA="$DATA" python3 - <<'PY' \n import os; template = os.environ['DATA'] \n PY
  • Fix 2 (file path arg): python3 - "$FILE_PATH" <<'PY' \n import sys; template = open(sys.argv[1]).read() \n PY — note "$FILE_PATH" AFTER - becomes sys.argv[1].
  • Fix 3 (write tempfile, read inside): echo "$DATA" > /tmp/x; FILE=/tmp/x python3 - <<'PY' \n template = open(os.environ['FILE']).read() \n PY.
• Context: skills/client-handover/scripts/handover-to-pdf.sh v1 piped HTML template through a substitute() function that ran python3 - <<'PY' and read sys.stdin. Pipe dropped silently, .html output 0 bytes. Caught by post-write wc -l; root cause found via bash -x. Fixed by passing template path through HQ_TEMPLATE_PATH env var, python opens the file directly (render_template() in current script).
• Future application:
  • Never combine an inline heredoc with an upstream pipe targeting the same interpreter. Pick one input channel: heredoc OR pipe, not both.
  • When in doubt: pass data via env vars (small payloads), file paths (large payloads), or argv. Reserve stdin for cases where the interpreter has NO heredoc.
  • Add post-write size check (test -s "$FILE" or wc -l) for any generated artifact in a shell pipeline — surfaces silent-failure modes immediately.
  • When debugging "script ran but file empty", run bash -x script.sh and look for the + python3 - line — if you see no upstream data being consumed, you have the heredoc-pipe collision.
• Reference: skills/client-handover/scripts/handover-to-pdf.sh render_template() (env-var-based, current); BDR-011 caveat list; commit e06b52a (final fix shipped with the renderer).

---

LRN-013 — marked CLI 16.x ignore stdin, dump own cli.js source

• Date: 2026-05-07
• Context: /client-handover PDF rendering. handover-to-pdf.sh fallback chain pandoc → python-markdown → npx marked. On host with only npx, pipeline ran npx --yes marked < "$src" and produced 2-page PDF where body = marked package's cli.js source (#!/usr/bin/env node, Marked CLI, copyright, import { main } from './main.js'). Real MD content (30 KB) entirely lost.
• Pattern: marked 16.x CLI regression — stdin path broken, ignores piped input, prints its own binary source. Only -i FILE flag works. Verified: echo "test" | npx marked → marked source. npx marked -i FILE → correct HTML.
• Why: do not assume marked CLI accepts stdin like awk/jq/sed. Check actual conversion output before shipping any MD→HTML renderer.
• How to apply: any shell md→html using marked CLI must call npx --yes marked --gfm -i "$src". Keep pandoc + python-markdown ahead in fallback chain — more stable. Smoke-test: render small MD, grep output for known content; fail loudly if mismatch.
• Reference: skills/client-handover/scripts/handover-to-pdf.sh line ~140 (npx fallback fixed). Commit fixing bug.

---

LRN-014 — Pandoc base gfm strips header id attrs — need gfm+gfm_auto_identifiers

• Date: 2026-05-11
• Pattern: pandoc --from=gfm --to=html5 does NOT auto-generate id attributes on header elements. Internal anchor links like [§4 NAP](#nap) become dead refs in rendered HTML/PDF. Symptom: rendered doc has <h2>NAP</h2> (no id), browser/PDF anchor resolves nowhere, user clicks link and goes nowhere. Enable id auto-gen by switching to --from=gfm+gfm_auto_identifiers — pandoc then emits <h2 id="nap">NAP</h2> (kebab-case slug from header text).
• Context: skills/client-handover/scripts/handover-to-pdf.sh MD→HTML cascade. 6-chapter handover doc added internal cross-references between chapters (§5 todo references back to §4 NAP table for values). Default --from=gfm produced HTML with no header ids — internal links dead. Discovered after rendering test handover, clicking link in PDF, going to top of doc instead of NAP section.
• Future application:
  • Any pandoc MD→HTML pipeline with [text](#anchor) cross-references → enable gfm_auto_identifiers extension explicitly.
  • Smoke-test internal anchors before shipping any renderer: render → grep -E 'id="[^"]+"' out.html → confirm headers have ids.
  • Slug rules: pandoc lowercases + replaces non-alpha with -, e.g. ## §4 NAP table → id="ss-4-nap-table". If you control header text, keep slugs predictable.
• Reference: skills/client-handover/scripts/handover-to-pdf.sh line 121 (--from=gfm+gfm_auto_identifiers). Commit b15b275.

---

LRN-015 — BrightLocal Free Tools retired 2026, Moz Local Citation Checker is free replacement

• Date: 2026-05-11
• Pattern: SEO/NAP tool landscape churns yearly. BrightLocal Free Tools page (brightlocal.com/free-local-tools/) retired in 2026 — service now paid-only. Moz Local Citation Checker (moz.com/local, "Check My Listing" / "Get Free Audit") is current free replacement: 60s NAP-consistency audit across 50+ directories (Google Business, Apple Maps, Yelp, Pages Jaunes, Bing Places), no credit card required.
• Context: client-handover NAP checklist (FR + EN versions) recommended brightlocal.com free tools — link dead, page redirects to paid tier. Caught during handover-doc render. Swapped both language versions to Moz Local with explicit "no credit card" note + path through homepage (button labels can change, URL moz.com/local is stable).
• Future application:
  • Any client-facing doc recommending "free SEO/NAP tools" → verify URLs alive + tool still free annually. SEO vendors churn free tiers regularly.
  • Prefer linking to vendor homepage + naming the button ("click Check My Listing") over deep links to specific tool URLs. Vendor URLs deprecate; homepages persist.
  • Maintain a short list of "verified-recent" free tools in the handover skill rather than rediscovering on each render.
• Reference: skills/client-handover/checklists/seo-geo-manual.md (FR section line ~218, EN section line ~429). Commit abd2612.

---

LRN-016 — Pandoc GFM checkbox markup breaks adjacent-sibling CSS — target li > input directly

• Date: 2026-05-11
• Pattern: pandoc GFM emits task-list checkboxes as <li><input disabled type="checkbox"> text…</li> with no wrapper class and no list-item class. Adjacent-sibling CSS rule li input[type="checkbox"] + * absolutely-positions the first element sibling AFTER the input — typically <a>, <code>, <strong>, or <em> inside the bullet text. Effect: that inline element gets yanked out of flow, overlaps adjacent content in rendered PDF. Symptom: PDF has links/code-spans visibly overlapping subsequent text.
• Context: skills/client-handover/resources/branding/zenquality.css task-list styling. Initial rule tried to render custom checkbox box via + * selector targeting the first sibling after <input>. Worked when bullet was plain text (no inline elements), broke when bullet contained <a href="..."> or <code>…</code> — those got absolutely-positioned. Caught in rendered LIVRAISON.pdf — checkbox icons OK but link/code text overlapped neighbors.
• Future application:
  • For pandoc GFM checkbox styling, target li > input[type="checkbox"] directly. Style native <input> via appearance: none + custom box rendering (background, border, size) on the input itself.
  • Avoid + * and other sibling-selector tricks on bare-input markup — pandoc gives no wrapper to anchor to, siblings vary per bullet content.
  • Render checklist with realistic content (<a>, <code>, <strong>) before signing off — bare text bullets won't surface the bug.
  • Symptom signature: rendered PDF has overlapping inline elements ONLY in task lists — points to a sibling-selector rule firing on inline content.
• Reference: skills/client-handover/resources/branding/zenquality.css li > input[type="checkbox"] rule + li.task-list-item::before (lines 372–410). Commit 465fe9e.

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LRN-017 — Thin-dispatcher SKILL.md round-1 win = fallback + frontmatter triggers (+15 to +30)

• Date: 2026-05-12
• Pattern: thin-dispatcher SKILL.md (delegates to agents/<x>.md, body 15-30 lines, no inline workflow) scores low on darwin rubric (45-70) because dims D2/D3/D4/D5 punish empty body. Round-1 universal fix:
  1. Add fallback clause — If $HOME/.claude/agents/<x>.md unreachable, emit "<X> agent missing." and STOP. Never improvise — silent behavior change is unsafe.
  2. Add triggers to frontmatter description — explicit Triggers: "<keyword>", "<synonym>", "<i18n variant>".
  3. For destructive skills (refactor, commit-change): add safety rationale + pre-flight check stub. Δ +13 to +31 observed: status 45.3→76.2 (+30.9), refactor 48.4→74.3 (+25.9), plugin-check 59.2→76.8 (+17.6), commit-change 69.6→83.5 (+13.9). 150% byte cap tight — trim aggressively.
• Context: /darwin-skill run 2026-05-12, branch auto-optimize/20260512-1319 merged to master, 5 commits. skills-perso (66.4→80.1, +13.7) NOT a dispatcher — different patch (Known-limits subsection on the heuristic).
• Future application:
  • Any darwin round-1 on a dispatcher SKILL.md → skip diagnosis, apply this template directly. Saves one eval cycle.
  • After round 1, gains flatten near 75-80 → pivot to next-lowest skill, do not grind rounds 2-3 on same target.
  • For thin originals (<500B), 150% cap is the binding constraint — pre-trim drafts before committing.
• Reference: .claude/audits/DARWIN-SKILL-2026-05-12.md. Commits 512df48..134561d. results.tsv at ~/.agents/skills/darwin-skill/results.tsv.

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LRN-018 — Darwin eval subagents drift on total math — recompute in main thread

• Date: 2026-05-12
• Pattern: analyzer subagents asked to score SKILL.md and compute weighted total drift on the formula. Two recurring errors: (a) divide Σ(dim×weight) by 100 instead of 10 (off by factor 10 — produces 6.17 instead of 61.7, then sometimes the subagent silently re-multiplies); (b) use D8 weight 7 instead of the spec value 25 (status: spec says D8 weight = 25, easy to confuse with D4 weight = 7). Per-dim judgments themselves stable across runs; computed totals unreliable.
• Context: 5 round-1 evals during darwin 2026-05-12. Refactor subagent computed 743÷10 correctly in scratch but wrote 617/100 = 61.7 — actual correct total 74.3. Subsequent prompts explicitly stating "D8 weight is 25" cleared the second error.
• Future application:
  • Prompt subagent for dim scores only, not weighted total. Main thread computes Σ(dim_i × weight_i) / 10 deterministically.
  • If subagent must compute, include weight table in prompt AND show example computation for one row.
  • When comparing baseline vs round-N, use main-thread recomputed totals on BOTH sides, not the two subagents' self-reported numbers.
  • Score recalibration between baseline subagent and round-1 subagent is real (independent re-anchoring) — first-round Δ tends to overstate improvement. Direction reliable, magnitude noisy.
• Reference: see "Methodology notes" section of .claude/audits/DARWIN-SKILL-2026-05-12.md.

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LRN-019 — Deployable-project doc split: README dev, DEPLOY prod-VPS 14 sections

• Date: 2026-05-15
• Pattern: deployable project → split docs by audience, not by topic. README = dev + features audience (one-line pitch, Features, Stack, Quick start (dev), Verifying a change, Build & deploy summary, Documentation cross-links, License). DEPLOY.md = ops/SRE audience, prod-only, 14 sections mirroring real VPS-deploy shape (topology table, env vars, VPS provisioning, two-layer firewall = cloud security group + UFW, Docker tuning = log caps + live-restore, first-time setup, routine deploys, persistence/volumes, backups + cron + retention, TLS = Caddy/nginx + ACME, observability = logs + healthchecks, hardening = SSH keys-only + fail2ban + unattended-upgrades, rollback, runbook). Dev quick-start NEVER in DEPLOY.md — mixed dev/prod = drift source. Trivial deploy (no Docker, no compose, no fly.toml, no k8s, no scripts/deploy.*) → fold into README, skip DEPLOY.md.
• Context: applied 2026-05-15 in agents/doc-syncer.md STEP 5/6 rewrite. Generalizes README-vs-DEPLOY ownership drift seen across multi-maintainer repos (devs read one doc, ops read another, both edit independently, conflicts pile up). 14-section template comes from real Scaleway DEV1-S walkthrough — shape works on any provider (Scaleway, Hetzner, OVH, DO, Vultr, plain bare-metal).
• Future application:
  • Any /onboard / /doc / /init-project producing docs for a deployable project → apply the split directly. Don't ask user "where should dev setup go" — README, always.
  • Existing repo has DEPLOY.md with "Local development" / "Dev setup" section → flag as drift, propose moving content to README, removing section from DEPLOY in same patch round.
  • Existing repo has README.md mixing prod topology details (firewall, TLS, backups) → flag as drift, propose moving to DEPLOY.md.
  • 14-section template = ceiling not floor. Drop sections that don't apply (no DB → drop "Managed DB" section, no domain → drop TLS section). Don't pad to hit 14.
  • Audience test before merging a doc section: "would a junior dev clone-and-run with this?" → README. "Would an on-call SRE provisioning a new VPS use this?" → DEPLOY. If both → split it.
• Reference: commit 7ee9b42, agents/doc-syncer.md STEP 5 (README template lines 223–335), STEP 6 (DEPLOY.md 14-section template lines 338–541). Linked to doc-syncer-readme-auto-deploy-prod (BDR-016).

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LRN-020 — profile-sentinel-collision: literal labels in cmd output must not match profile filenames

• Date: 2026-05-18
• Context: Adding lib/profiles/full.profile exposed an aliasing bug in lib/profile.sh:421. cmd_current returned literal "full (all gstack skills enabled — no profile set)" when no profile was applied — a sentinel meaning "no profile active, full gstack on". With a real profile now named full, output became ambiguous: same word, opposite meanings (sentinel = no profile vs. profile name = canonical full set). Renamed sentinel to "none".
• Pattern: when a CLI returns named identifiers from a known namespace (profiles, channels, modes), any sentinel/placeholder value MUST be outside that namespace. Reserve sentinel strings like none, unset, default, <none> — never reuse a real identifier as "absence of identifier".
• Where applicable:
  • Any cmd_current / cmd_status / cmd_active that reports either a real entity OR a "nothing applied" state.
  • Profile/preset systems with named profiles.
  • Selector outputs in shell scripts where downstream code does [ "$x" = "<name>" ].
• How to detect early:
  • Before adding a new entity name to a namespace, grep the codebase for hardcoded literals matching the candidate name (grep -rn '"full"\|"none"\|"default"' lib/).
  • Audit case statements + echo lines in CLI commands for namespace-reserved labels.
• Cost when missed: shell-script consumers parsing the output break silently — [ "$prof" = "full" ] matches both meanings. User reads ambiguous status. No type system to catch it.
• Reference: lib/profile.sh:421 sentinel rename in same commit as new full.profile. Linked to profile-full-superset (BDR-017).