Gabe Imagine

gabe-imagine — give it a context

Naming: the SKILL is gabe-imagine; the artifact it renders is called a prism — the format's noun, carried by docs/prisms/, {{PRISM:<slug>}}, prism-<slug>.html and the gates. Skill name ≠ artifact name.

Usage: /gabe-imagine <context> — the context is a brief pointer, one line to a short paragraph: a concept ("compound interest, for a saver"), an app ("gustify"), a use case ("adding a transaction in gustify"), a phenomenon ("how countries create money"), a code relationship ("the hook router's callers"). The skill carries everything else; a caller never passes constraints, structure, or style — those live in this skill's references. Also: /gabe-imagine patterns — list and open the grammar pattern pages under assets/patterns/ for browsing, nothing else · --target artifact.

Gabe execution contract (E1–E7)

This skill runs under the suite execution contract — E1 EVIDENCE · E2 RUN-BEFORE-✅ · E3 NO SILENT DOWNGRADE · E4 REUSE FIRST · E5 STATE SYNC · E6 MISSING ANCHOR = STOP · E7 REPORT WHERE — floors, not ceilings. Full text: ../gabe-docs/references/execution-contract.md (missing ⇒ E6 — STOP).

One line: a concept map draws the connections and hides the cargo. A production floor answers by existing — the item is on the belt, it changes shape at each machine, and the starved machine turns colour before anyone reads a word. The finished page is an INSTRUMENT the reader plays, not an article the reader abstracts from — when a page explains by paragraph, this skill has failed (the compound-interest one-shot's verdicts, both rounds).

THE FLOW — from a brief context to pages

Every run walks these steps; the per-step depth flexes with the subject, the steps themselves do not. The binding detail for each lives in references/dissection/ — start at MAP.md, load per step:

The surface contract (binding on every produced page)

• Every section leads with a component — a floor, a map, a simulator, a ledger, tiles. Prose is captions beneath visuals, never the carrier.
• Surface budget: ≤150 words across the page's prose blocks — the builder-rendered lede and handle INCLUDED — no block over 2 sentences. Depth lives one layer down — inspectors, hover, click.
• Captions are register sentences — thing → action → consequence, per the Gabe register; a caption that only describes state gets its consequence attached or gets cut.
• Assets by lookup order — Tier 1 shell grammar (free) → Tier 2 lift (31 static + 25 motion + 5 grammar pattern libraries) → Tier 3 create, page-local, AND record it in dissection/assets-inventory.md. Inventing what the library holds is a defect (E4).
• Numbers are real and recountable; new chart colors run the dataviz validator; unlike kinds never share a silhouette.
• One model, one control surface — when 2+ components share variables, a consolidated VARIABLE BAR drives them all (sticky mirror chips, hover-morph sliders, master-dispatch sync — disk-target.md §Authoring); a component with private constants that the model already owns is a defect.
• A formula is shown wearing its values — the badged-equation device (dissection/translation-elements.md), never a symbols-only wall.

P0 · Two targets — disk by default

Disk page kinds: console (one screen, ambient loop + scrub) answers how does this move; article (assembles down the scroll, may end on a console cover) answers what does each part do. Canvas takes the viewport, prose caps at 76ch; 13px floor text × 0.92 min scale = the 12px floor. Binding spec: references/disk-target.md — read before authoring.

P1 · The actor table, or no floor

Per actor: name · consumes (named payload IN) · produces (named OUT, ≠ IN) · one measured number · state (one of the four) · optional gate + failure mode · inspector payload (nothing to open ⇒ not clickable). STOP (E6-shaped): fewer than three actors with distinct named payloads ships as prose, not a floor — decorating an undecomposed system is the failure this skill prevents.

P2 · Four states — "red or green" collapses three different next moves

running (built + proven) · ghost (not built — a named absence, dashed) · unpowered (exists, nothing proves it can fail — amber) · broken (reports success over work it did not do — red). Every state used is legended on that page, beside the thing it colours.

P3 · The chooser — pattern follows material, not taste

Each ships as an openable page under assets/patterns/ — read one before authoring (E4) — EXCEPT loop-grid, a NAMED GAP: until its page ships, read the "Loop grid floor" motion-library card + the compound-interest floor (docs/prisms/compound-interest/body.html, the reference implementation). When two fit, offer both at I2; the operator's word wins. A representation still contested after that ⇒ the representation-lab move (dissection/dissection-method.md §proposal).

P4 · The build loop (inside I4)

1. Inventory check (dissection/assets-inventory.md) — what is already built or liftable for this page's components.
2. Fill the actor table (P1). Cannot fill ⇒ prose.
3. Choose pattern (P3) and page kind (P0), one line each on why.
4. Lift the closest pattern/library asset and re-point it at the real actor table — numbers come from the table only.
5. Author docs/prisms/<slug>/{prism.json,body.html} (schema: disk-target.md §Authoring), then build + gate in one command from the repo root (E2):

   bash docs/center/generators/refresh_suite_center.sh regen     # suite repo
   

   (iterating: the fast loop in disk-target.md §Build order; downstream projects: §Portability's honest state). Add the render probe for anything interactive (I5).
6. Report the absolute source path (+ URL on the artifact target).

P5 · What the verifier checks

tools/verify-prism.mjs (fixtures in tests/prism/): payloads named and different · every node numbered · states legal and legended · clickables open panels with content · gates are never stages · the payload changes identity across the chain. Known hole: check 3 verifies a number is PRESENT, not traceable — data-num-source remains open; do not assume the gate defends provenance. Prose-only: whether the actors are RIGHT and the analogy earns its cost — a reviewer adjudicates, and I5's stop exists for exactly that.

Anti-patterns

• Building anything before the I2 checkpoint answered.
• Inventing an asset the libraries already hold (E4).
• A floor drawn from a system nobody decomposed (P1's STOP).
• Prose carrying what a component should show; a surface past the budget.
• Motion for its own sake — a taxonomy does not move.
• A number on the page that is not in the actor table.
• Two states where four are needed.
• A belt past ~5 machines left as one row (break into .pf-rows).
• A fragment with a nav entry (a fragment with one is a page).
• Re-authoring chrome, palettes or motion primitives gabe-artifact ships.