Artifact

artifact

The operator reads reports as HTML pages over Tailscale, not as chat walls. This skill is the single source of truth for how those pages look and what they can do. Hermes-independent (replaced ~/.hermes/scripts/hermes_artifact_*).

The contract every artifact honors

• One house style. The template (CSS + JS) lives inside scripts/artifact_create.py as HOUSE_CSS/HOUSE_JS — edit there, every future report inherits it. Don't hand-roll a divergent stylesheet.
• A copy-page button, always. Every report carries a header "Copy page" button that copies the entire rendered document to the clipboard. Baked into the template; injected automatically if you pass an already-authored full HTML file.
• Self-contained. Inline CSS/JS, no external assets — the copied HTML is a complete, portable page.
• Informational, not decorative. Tables, callouts, diagrams that carry information prose can't. See the aesthetic repo for the deeper design language.

Information design doctrine (operator ruling, 2026-07-03)

"It's a little bit silly to be leaning into HTML and then still have it be one long-ass pile of text." An artifact that is a Markdown report in a browser has missed the medium. Before authoring, ask: what is the most effective articulation of THIS information? — then climb the ladder only as far as the content earns:

1. Prose — for argument and verdicts. Short. Never the whole page.
2. Structure — tables for enumerable facts, callouts for rulings, phase lanes for sequence, comparison grids for alternatives. Layout IS analysis.
3. Diagrams & generated images — when shape carries the meaning (system maps, flows, timelines). Nano Banana renders legible labeled infographics in ~4s for ~$0.03 (GEMINI_API_KEY is in the env) — use it liberally for informational images, never decoration.
4. Interactive & animated — drill-downs, toggles, simulations, canvas/ three.js/WebGL — when the reader needs to explore (a graph, a before/after, a what-if), not just read. Inline the library or keep it dependency-free; the page must stay self-contained.

Guardrails: single-column narrative spine is generally right; a noisy dense dashboard is as much a failure as the wall of text. Strong visual hierarchy, restrained color used semantically, progressive disclosure — the first viewport carries the verdict, depth unfolds below. Tell a story; every claim links to its evidence (the atlas principle applies to pages too).

Shelf gotcha

artifact_create.py mirrors to the bastion/Sanctum shelf automatically. Files written RAW into ~/artifacts/public/a/<slug>/ serve on the local host only — they need the bearer-PUT publish step (see publish_to_shelf in ~/.factory-lanes/scripts/bridge.py) or the operator won't find them on Sanctum. Bit us live 2026-07-03.

Do it

S=~/Development/harness-kit/skills/artifact/scripts
# quick: markdown in, styled page out
python3 $S/artifact_create.py --title "Weekly Ops" --slug weekly-ops \
  --tag "Field Memo" --summary "..." --body-file report.md
# rich: author a full HTML page (best for real reports); the copy button is
# injected if you forgot it. Match HOUSE_CSS class names for consistency.
python3 $S/artifact_create.py --title "The Factory" --slug factory \
  --tag "Field Memo" --html-file factory.html

The script writes a local mirror (~/artifacts/public/a/<slug>/index.html), then PUTs the page to the box shelf and prints the canonical URL: https://bastion.tail5f5eb4.ts.net/artifacts/a/<slug>/. Use a 1–2 word slug. Publishing needs ARTIFACTS_API_TOKEN (env or ~/.secrets; canonical copy in 1Password op://Agents/ARTIFACTS_API_TOKEN). --local-only skips the PUT. Verify with curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}' <url> before handing over the link. Publish any raw HTML from anywhere on the tailnet with one line:

curl -T page.html -H "Authorization: Bearer $ARTIFACTS_API_TOKEN" \
  https://bastion.tail5f5eb4.ts.net/artifacts/a/<slug>/index.html

Serving

The shelf lives on the bastion Fly box (apps/artifacts in the bastion repo): files on the /data volume, served at …ts.net/artifacts/, indexed newest-first at the bare path, linked from the Sanctum portal at the tailnet root (https://bastion.tail5f5eb4.ts.net/). Survives laptop sleep and reboots.

Legacy mirror: scripts/artifact_serve.py still serves ~/artifacts/public on 127.0.0.1:8789 under launchd (com.phaedrus.artifacts.plist), exposed at serenity.tail5f5eb4.ts.net/artifacts/. Old links keep resolving; the local tree doubles as the shelf's backup. New links always point at bastion.

Extending

Add reusable block styles (cards, timelines, phase lists) to HOUSE_CSS when a report needs them, so the next report can reuse the class. Keep the template one file; don't fork per-report CSS.