Greg Gauthier 5cd09628ee feat(project): add initial setup with IDE configs, gitignore, and final script

- Introduce .gitignore to exclude output directory
- Add IntelliJ/PyCharm project files under .idea/
- Create CLAUDE.md for Claude Code guidance on the project
- Add scripts/nerdletter_numbers_station_final.sh as the refined Lincolnshire Poacher style generator
- Update sample output MP4 in output/

2026-04-27 20:38:41 +01:00

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CLAUDE.md

This file provides guidance to Claude Code (claude.ai/code) when working with code in this repository.

Project Overview

Nerdletter Cypher is a collection of bash scripts that generate "numbers station" style MP4 videos for the Nerdletter newsletter. Each video displays a ciphertext message with retro green-on-black terminal aesthetics and a synthesized voice reading the message aloud, mimicking cold-war shortwave numbers stations (specifically the Lincolnshire Poacher style).

Subscribers use a "Day Book" (a one-time pad or codebook) to decode the ciphertext messages.

Script Variants

All scripts live in scripts/ and share a common interface:

./script.sh "CIPHERTEXT GROUPS" PAGE_NUMBER [EPISODE_NUMBER]
# Example: ./script.sh "HLXIB JACJP ERXHN EFM" 001 01

nerdletter_numbers_station.sh — Original basic version (espeak-ng + ffmpeg, single pass)
nerdletter_numbers_station_linux.sh — Linux variant with letter-by-letter pronunciation
nerdletter_numbers_station_mac.sh / _mac_old.sh — macOS variants (uses Courier New font for Homebrew ffmpeg compatibility)
nerdletter_numbers_station_poacher.sh through poacher10.sh — Iterative refinements adding: Lincolnshire Poacher intro music, shortwave static mixing, letter-by-letter speech with inter-group pauses, longer durations, and audio layering

The poacher series represents progressive iterations. The highest-numbered poacher script (poacher10.sh) is the most refined version with letter-by-letter speech, pauses between cipher groups, and full audio mixing (poacher intro + static + voice).

Dependencies

espeak-ng — text-to-speech synthesis (voice: en+f3, female)
ffmpeg — video generation, audio mixing, and final MP4 encoding
wget — (poacher scripts only) for downloading the Lincolnshire Poacher intro audio from archive.org

Assets

assets/poacher_intro.wav — Lincolnshire Poacher music intro clip
assets/static.wav — Shortwave radio static noise
output/ — Generated MP4 files land here (though some scripts output to the current working directory)

Key Parameters Across Scripts

espeak-ng flags control the voice character:

-s speech rate (lower = slower/more dramatic, ranges from 74-120 across variants)
-k capitals emphasis
-a amplitude/volume
-ven+f3 English female voice variant 3

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