Story Computing Machine

A shared-universe fiction workspace. A writing prompt becomes a complete story through specialist outline, prose, independent review, and cover assignments:

prompt.md → outline.md → story.md → review.md → title-image.jpg

The stories and universe notes are the product. Production stays in these five artifacts, with Git preserving history and Pages publishing a stored snapshot.

Start a story

Open the primary checkout in Codex and submit a prompt:

[WP] Every city has a ghost assigned to it. Tonight, ours resigns.

Target: about 3,000 words; close third person; melancholy but hopeful.

Put additional context in a separate paragraph. Attach any visual references to the request. The coordinator prepares a dedicated branch and sibling worktree, then follows story-create through a draft pull request. New stories are non-canon; promotion is a separate user decision. For named replacements and localized edits, see permissions.

Project map

• AGENTS.md: authority, permissions, artifact boundaries, worktrees.
• universe/: shared facts; style guide: narrative policy and craft profiles.
• story-create: coordination and completion.
• story-room: outline, review, cover contracts, scaffold, and validation scripts.
• short-story-writing: prose adapter; other craft skills are pinned references tracked by skills-lock.json.
• .codex/agents/: four specialist entry points.
• stories/: current and supported bundle packages; _template/ supplies the four-file scaffold.
• pages/catalog.json, pages/covers/: publication snapshot.
• pages/timeline.json: curated chronology; universe/ remains authoritative.

Local commands

Install the Python dependencies, Markdown and Pillow:

python -m pip install -r pages/requirements.txt

Run these from the story worktree at the appropriate workflow stage:

pwsh -NoProfile -File .agents/skills/story-room/scripts/Test-Stories.ps1 -Story <slug> -Phase PreReview
pwsh -NoProfile -File .agents/skills/story-room/scripts/Test-Stories.ps1 -Phase Final
python pages/build.py capture <slug>
python pages/build.py check

PreReview checks the current scaffold and declarations. Final checks the completed structure, verdicts, inventory, and decodable cover. Semantic and visual judgment remains with the reviewers. Bundle prose receives only compatible checks.

For tooling changes and a local site preview:

python -m unittest discover -s pages -p "test_*.py" -v
python pages/build.py build --output _site

Capture derives the public prompt on first publication and preserves editorial catalog text on recapture. capture-all refreshes existing catalog entries only. Both refuse canon demotion; see Pages rules. GitHub Actions builds and deploys the stored snapshot after merge; it does not reopen story sources or run production review.