Microsim Generator

MicroSim Generator

Overview

This meta-skill routes MicroSim creation requests to the appropriate specialized generator based on visualization requirements. It consolidates 14 individual MicroSim generator skills into a single entry point with on-demand loading of specific implementation guides.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when users request:

• Interactive educational visualizations
• Data visualizations (charts, graphs, plots)
• Timelines or chronological displays
• Geographic/map visualizations
• Network diagrams or concept maps
• Flowcharts or workflow diagrams
• Mathematical function plots
• Set diagrams (Venn)
• Priority matrices or bubble charts
• Custom simulations or animations
• Comparison tables with ratings
• Matrix comparisons with expandable cell details

Step 1: Analyze Request and Match Generator

Scan the user's request for trigger keywords and match to the appropriate generator guide.

Quick Reference Routing Table

Decision Tree

Has dates/timeline/chronological events?
  → YES: timeline-guide.md

Has geographic coordinates/locations?
  → YES: map-guide.md

Mathematical function f(x) or equation?
  → YES: plotly-guide.md

Nodes and edges/network relationships?
  → YES: vis-network-guide.md (or causal-loop-guide.md if systems thinking)

Flowchart/workflow/process diagram?
  → YES: mermaid-guide.md

Sets with overlaps (2-4 categories)?
  → YES: venn-guide.md

Priority matrix/2x2 quadrant/multi-dimensional?
  → YES: bubble-guide.md

Standard chart (bar/line/pie/radar)?
  → YES: chartjs-guide.md

Comparison table with ratings/stars?
  → YES: comparison-table-guide.md

Matrix comparison with clickable cells/detail panels?
  → YES: html-table.md

Celebration/particles/visual feedback?
  → YES: celebration-guide.md

Custom simulation/animation/physics?
  → YES: p5-guide.md

Step 2: Instructional Design Checkpoint (MANDATORY)

Before loading any generator guide, you MUST complete this checkpoint.

2.1 Identify Learning Objective Details

Extract from the specification:

• Bloom Level: Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, or Create
• Bloom Verb: The action verb (explain, demonstrate, calculate, etc.)
• Learning Objective: The full statement of what learners will be able to do

2.2 Match Interaction Pattern to Bloom Level

2.3 Answer These Questions

Before proceeding, answer these questions:

1. What specific data must the learner SEE?

   • Not "animated particles" but "the tokenized array ['physics', 'ball']"

2. Does the learner need to PREDICT before observing?

   • If YES → Use step-through with Next/Previous buttons
   • If YES → Do NOT use continuous animation

3. What does animation add that static arrows don't?

   • If you can't answer this clearly → Don't use animation

4. Is continuous animation appropriate for this Bloom level?

   • For Understand (L2) with verb "explain" → Almost always NO
   • For Apply (L3) with real-time feedback → Often YES

2.4 Modify Specification If Needed

If the specification requests animation/effects for an UNDERSTAND level objective:

• Flag this as a potential instructional design issue
• Recommend step-through pattern instead
• Ask user: "The specification requests animation, but for an 'explain' objective, a step-through approach with concrete data visibility typically supports learning better. Should I proceed with step-through instead?"

2.5 Document Your Decision

Add to your response:

Instructional Design Check:
- Bloom Level: [level]
- Bloom Verb: [verb]
- Recommended Pattern: [pattern]
- Specification Alignment: [aligned/modified]
- Rationale: [why this pattern supports the learning objective]

Step 3: Load the Matched Guide

Once you complete the instructional design checkpoint, read the corresponding guide file from the references/ directory and follow its workflow.

Example:

• User asks for "a timeline showing the history of Unix"
• Match: timeline keyword → Load references/timeline-guide.md
• Follow the timeline-guide.md workflow

Step 5: Execute Generator Workflow

Each guide contains:

1. Library-specific requirements
2. Directory structure to create
3. Step-by-step implementation workflow
4. Code templates and patterns
5. Best practices for that visualization type

Handling Ambiguous Requests

If the request could match multiple generators:

1. Read references/routing-criteria.md for detailed scoring methodology
2. Score top 3 candidates using the 0-100 scale
3. Present options to user with reasoning:

   Based on your request, I recommend:
   1. [Generator A] (Score: 85) - Best for [reason]
   2. [Generator B] (Score: 70) - Alternative if you need [feature]
   3. [Generator C] (Score: 55) - Possible if [condition]
   
   Which would you prefer?
   

4. Proceed with user's selection

Common Ambiguities

Available Generators

Primary Generators

Shared Standards

All MicroSims follow these standards regardless of generator:

Directory Structure:

docs/sims/<microsim-name>/
├── main.html       # Main visualization file
├── index.md        # Documentation page
├── *.js or *.css   # Supporting files
└── metadata.json   # Dublin Core metadata (optional)

URI Scheme for Discoverability:

All MicroSim HTML files MUST include this schema meta tag for global discoverability:

<meta name="schema" content="https://dmccreary.github.io/intelligent-textbooks/ns/microsim/v1">

This enables counting and discovery of MicroSims across GitHub using code search. See the URI Scheme documentation for details.

Integration:

• Embedded via iframe in MkDocs pages
• Width-responsive design
• Non-scrolling iframe container
• Standard height: drawHeight + controlHeight + 2px
• Iframe paths MUST always be relative, NEVER absolute:
  • From a sim's own index.md: <iframe src="main.html" ...>
  • From chapter files (docs/chapters/*/index.md): <iframe src="../../sims/[sim-name]/main.html" ...>
  • NEVER use absolute paths like /sims/... — they break on GitHub Pages where the site is served under a subdirectory (e.g., /geometry-course/)

Quality Checklist:

• Runs without errors in modern browsers
• Responsive to container width
• Controls respond immediately
• Educational purpose is clear
• Code is well-commented

Examples

Example 1: Timeline Request

User: "Create a timeline showing key events in computer history" Routing: Keywords "timeline", "events", "history" → references/timeline-guide.md Action: Read timeline-guide.md and follow its workflow

Example 2: Chart Request

User: "Make a bar chart comparing programming language popularity" Routing: Keywords "bar chart", "comparing" → references/chartjs-guide.md Action: Read chartjs-guide.md and follow its workflow

Example 3: Custom Simulation

User: "Build an interactive bouncing ball simulation" Routing: Keywords "interactive", "bouncing", "simulation" → references/p5-guide.md Action: Read p5-guide.md and follow its workflow

Example 4: Ambiguous Request

User: "Create a graph of our project dependencies" Routing: "graph" + "dependencies" suggests network → references/vis-network-guide.md Action: Read vis-network-guide.md (but clarify if user meant a chart)

Reference Files

For detailed information, consult:

• references/routing-criteria.md - Complete scoring methodology for all generators
• references/<generator>-guide.md - Specific implementation guide for each generator
• assets/templates/ - Shared templates and patterns

Step 6: Auto-Standardization

IMPORTANT: After creating the MicroSim files, automatically run standardization to ensure quality and documentation standards are met.

Why Auto-Standardize?

• Eliminates manual follow-up work
• Ensures consistent quality across all MicroSims
• Adds metadata.json, lesson plans, and references automatically
• Calculates and records quality_score in index.md

Standardization Process

After the generator guide workflow completes (files created in docs/sims/<microsim-name>/):

1. Read the standardization guide: Load ../microsim-utils/references/standardization.md
2. Run the standardization checklist on the newly created MicroSim directory
3. Implement all fixes automatically (skip user confirmation since this is a new MicroSim)
4. Generate quality_score and add to index.md frontmatter

What Standardization Adds

The standardization process will add these elements if missing:

• metadata.json - Dublin Core metadata for discoverability
• YAML frontmatter - title, description, quality_score, image paths
• Iframe examples - Copy-paste code for embedding
• Fullscreen button - Link to view MicroSim fullscreen
• Lesson Plan section - Learning objectives, activities, assessment
• References section - Related resources and documentation

Workflow Integration

[User Request]
    → [Route to Guide]
    → [Generate MicroSim Files]
    → [Auto-Standardize] ← NEW STEP
    → [Update mkdocs.yml]
    → [Done]

This eliminates the need to manually run microsim-utils standardization after every MicroSim creation.

mkdocs.yml Integration

After creating and standardizing a MicroSim, update the site navigation.

For single MicroSims, add manually to mkdocs.yml:

nav:
  - MicroSims:
    - List of MicroSims: sims/index.md
    - Existing Sim: sims/existing-sim/index.md
    - New MicroSim: sims/new-microsim-name/index.md  # Add here

For batch operations, use the update-mkdocs-nav.py utility instead:

python3 src/microsim-utils/update-mkdocs-nav.py --project-dir /path/to/project

This scans docs/sims/ and regenerates the entire MicroSims nav section alphabetically. It is idempotent and safe to run multiple times.

Batch Generation Utilities

When generating MicroSims for multiple chapters, these Python utilities in src/microsim-utils/ eliminate ~430K tokens of repetitive work per batch run:

Batch Workflow

# 1. Extract all diagram/drawing specs from chapters
python3 src/microsim-utils/extract-sim-specs.py \
    --project-dir $PROJECT --output /tmp/specs.json \
    --status-file docs/sims/sim-status.json --verbose

# 2. Scaffold unbuilt sims (main.html, index.md, metadata.json)
python3 src/microsim-utils/generate-sim-scaffold.py \
    --spec-file /tmp/specs.json --project-dir $PROJECT --verbose

# 3. Agent implements .js files (this is where the creative work happens)

# 4. Insert iframes into chapter markdown
python3 src/microsim-utils/add-iframes-to-chapter.py \
    --all --project-dir $PROJECT --fix-heights --fix-paths

# 5. Update mkdocs.yml navigation
python3 src/microsim-utils/update-mkdocs-nav.py --project-dir $PROJECT

# 6. Validate quality scores
python3 src/microsim-utils/validate-sims.py --project-dir $PROJECT

sim-status.json Integration

The extract-sim-specs.py --status-file flag generates a lifecycle tracking file. After a context window fills during batch generation, a new session can read sim-status.json to resume where it left off:

• specified — has spec in chapter but no sim directory yet
• scaffolded — directory with main.html/index.md but no substantive JS
• implemented — JS file exists and >50 lines
• validated — quality_score >= 70
• deployed — validated + iframe present in chapter

See src/microsim-utils/README.md for full documentation.