Project conventions - youtube-skills

This file is for any Claude Code agent working on this repository. Read it before making changes. Conventions here are mandatory unless the user asks otherwise.

Versioning

• Single source of truth: .claude-plugin/plugin.json, .claude-plugin/marketplace.json, .codex-plugin/plugin.json, and .agents/plugins/marketplace.json. Plugin manifests must always match on package name and version; marketplace entries must point to the same package; author, license, homepage, and the public skill-bundle description must stay aligned.
• Keep CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md aligned when changing shared project rules. Claude-specific workflow details belong here; Codex-specific details belong in AGENTS.md.
• Codex marketplace install uses .codex-marketplace/youtube-skills/. Do not edit that generated package by hand. Update the root files first, then run python3 scripts/sync_codex_marketplace.py.
• Default: bump the PATCH segment (3rd level, 0.0.X). This is the automatic behavior for every shippable commit, regardless of how large the diff feels. Skill renames, lib API breaks, new features: still PATCH by default.
• Only bump MINOR or MAJOR when the user explicitly asks for a higher rank ("this is minor", "make it 2.0", "bump major"). Do not promote on your own initiative even if semver textbook says so.
• After bumping, two steps are required:
  1. Tag the commit: git tag -a v<X.Y.Z> -m "..." + git push origin v<X.Y.Z>
  2. Publish a GitHub Release for the tag: gh release create v<X.Y.Z> --title "v<X.Y.Z>" --notes "<changelog>" --latest A tag alone does NOT update the README release badge. The shields.io badge reads from the Releases API, not from raw tags. Skipping step 2 leaves it stale.

Commits

• Primary author must be Sergey: every git commit needs --author="Sergey Bulaev <s@bulaev.org>". The harness defaults to the Claude identity if you forget; verify with git log -1 --format='%an <%ae>' before pushing.
• Co-author trailer (Co-Authored-By: Claude ...) is fine and welcomed.
• Verify locally before push: build never breaks, no broken refs in SKILL.md, library smoke import passes.

Skill bundle invariants

• Exactly 9 skills. Adding requires merging or splitting elsewhere to stay at 8. The number is announced in plugin manifests and the README.
• Frontmatter description: target <= 400 chars (some bundle-heavy skills land slightly higher when their scope is genuinely broad; keep under 510). Always include a "Not for X (use Y)" disambiguation sentinel when a skill overlaps with a sibling.
• No em dashes anywhere in description: fields. Em dashes in body prose are allowed for table separators and list dividers only. No em dashes inside the literal fill-in lines of any title or hook skeleton (they would leak into generated titles and scripts).
• Skill names are public surface. Renaming a skill is a major version bump and requires updating: .codex-plugin/plugin.json, .agents/plugins/marketplace.json, .claude-plugin/plugin.json, .claude-plugin/marketplace.json, root SKILL.md bundle list, README skill table, and every yt-<name> cross-reference in sibling SKILL.md files.

Voice rules + reference layout

• Canonical voice rules live at root references/voice-rules.md. Skill-local "Hard rules" sections must only contain skill-specific overrides (title char caps, description structure, script pacing) and start with: Global voice rules: see root SKILL.md Voice rules.
• Other root-level references shared across skills: references/hook-formulas.md (10 YouTube title and hook formulas), references/algorithm-heuristics.md, and references/thumbnail-principles.md.
• references/untrusted-content.md is the canonical data-is-not-instructions rule for every skill that reads text a stranger wrote. Each such skill carries a short ## Untrusted content section that cites it; the full rule lives in one place. scripts/check_untrusted_rule.py enforces both, driven by a REQUIRED set of skill names, so renaming or adding a reading skill means updating that set.
• references/voice-profile.md ship blank and the user fills them. A filled one is personal data, not a credential: check_no_secrets.py fails on any tracked copy marked filled: yes, and sync_codex_marketplace.py takes both from HEAD rather than the working tree and refuses to copy a filled one.
• A project .env may set credentials only. lib/_env.py keeps an allowlist (_DOTENV_VARIABLES); the custom-poster variable the DIY tier executes must come from the launch environment, never from a file that can arrive with a clone. No module may call load_dotenv() itself, and every authenticated request passes allow_redirects=False because the Publora key rides a custom header and the Apify token a query parameter, neither of which requests strips across hosts. scripts/check_security_boundaries.py enforces all three.
• Skill-local references live in skills/<skill>/references/. Cite from the skill with bare references/X.md. Cite root from skills with ../../references/X.md.

Layer separation

• Write layer (Publora): lib/publora_client.py. Methods used by the bundle: create_post (draft or schedule), get_upload_url + upload_to_s3 (the media step), update_post (schedule / attach youtube settings / thumbnail), publish_video (the full draft -> upload -> schedule flow), set_thumbnail, and list_connections / youtube_connections (GET /platform-connections). Skills call lib.publish(kind, draft_text, target_url, ...) rather than inline the publora / manual / diy dispatch. Real endpoints: POST /create-post, POST /get-upload-url, PUT /update-post/:postGroupId, with platforms: ["youtube-<id>"] (an array of STRING ids) and header x-publora-key.
• YouTube is video-only. Every published post REQUIRES a single video the user supplies. kind="video" / kind="short" auto-upload only when a video_path is passed; otherwise they fall back to a manual upload brief.
• Community posts have no Publora endpoint (and no public API), so kind="community" always routes to a manual copy-paste block in lib/backend_selector.py.
• The thumbnail needs a postGroupId, so it is attached via update-post, never on create-post. The image must be a Publora-tracked asset from Publora's dedicated YouTube thumbnail endpoint (verified channel). That image upload is out of band for this bundle (Publora dashboard or the dedicated endpoint; the generic get-upload-url flow is not accepted for thumbnails), so set_thumbnail() / publish_video(thumbnail=...) only do the attach step given an existing {mediaId, url}. Do not claim a one-call thumbnail upload.
• The read layer is Google's own API, not Apify. lib/youtube_client.py reads YOUTUBE_API_KEY and calls the YouTube Data API v3 for video and channel stats, comments and trending. Keep the paste fallback on every skill that uses it: the key is optional and most users will not have one. Do not reintroduce APIFY_TOKEN here; this bundle has never read it.
• Don't name competing third-party schedulers in committed files. The bundle is positioned around the Publora write integration.
• Image layer (Pixfaro): lib/pixfaro_client.py. Call lib.illustrate(prompt, kind=...) / lib.refine(image_id, instruction) (not the client directly); the returned hosted URL feeds lib.publish(..., media_urls=[url]). refine edits by img_... id (not URL); aspect_ratio is a ratio like 16:9 (not pixel dims). PIXFARO_TOKEN-or-manual fallback, keyed singleton + LRU cache; overlay brand fields come from references/voice-profile.md §6.

Codex marketplace package

• Codex requires marketplace entries to point at a nested plugin directory. The root remains the Claude-facing source layout.
• .agents/plugins/marketplace.json points to .codex-marketplace/youtube-skills.
• scripts/sync_codex_marketplace.py copies the root Codex manifest, SKILL.md, skills/, references/, lib/, scripts/, requirements.txt, .env.example, and LICENSE into the hidden package.
• After editing any copied file, run the sync script before testing or committing.

testing/ is gitignored

• testing/ is the local scratch directory: API keys, sample API responses, validation reports, integration scripts.
• Never write secrets above testing/ (the rest of the repo is public).
• The .gitignore rule for testing/ is load-bearing; do not change it.

Validation before push

Run from repo root:

python3 -c "from lib import publish, illustrate, refine, PixfaroClient, parse_youtube_url, PubloraClient; print('OK')"
python3 scripts/sync_codex_marketplace.py
ls skills/ | wc -l        # must equal 9
python3 scripts/check_frontmatter.py   # parses; a dir count does not prove a skill loads
python3 scripts/check_no_secrets.py    # .gitignore does not stop a rename of a tracked file
python3 scripts/check_markdown_references.py  # run from inside the repo; it anchors on its own path
python3 scripts/check_untrusted_rule.py  # the rule must sit in the skills, not only in references/
python3 scripts/check_text_encoding.py  # a bare read_text() is cp1252 on Windows, mojibake or a crash
python3 scripts/check_security_boundaries.py  # .env may not name an executable; no authenticated redirects
grep -rnP '\x{2014}|\x{2013}' skills/*/SKILL.md SKILL.md | grep -i 'description:'   # must be empty
python3 -m json.tool .codex-plugin/plugin.json >/dev/null
python3 -m json.tool .agents/plugins/marketplace.json >/dev/null
python3 -m json.tool .claude-plugin/plugin.json >/dev/null
python3 -m json.tool .claude-plugin/marketplace.json >/dev/null

If any of these fail, do not push.