65d2e46788
Add consistent front-matter schema to CLAUDE.md and GROK.md, including title, date, topics, related articles, and abstracts. Apply similar front-matter to draft files (agile-stories.md, uses-and-abuses.md) and published articles (Agile-Or-Whatever-You-Call-It.md, Testers-As-Explorers.md, etc.) to improve indexing, searchability, and cross-referencing. Ensure topics use a controlled vocabulary and abstracts capture core theses.
69 lines
5.0 KiB
Markdown
69 lines
5.0 KiB
Markdown
# CLAUDE.md
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## What This Repository Is
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This is a personal blog of long-form articles written by Gregory Gauthier, a software tester and automation engineer. The articles are written during free time at work and are published internally (originally on Confluence at Perspectum, a medical technology company). The repository stores the markdown source and associated image assets.
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## Writing Style and Voice
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Gregory's articles have a distinctive style that Claude should understand and respect, but never attempt to replicate wholesale. The voice is his own. Key characteristics:
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- **Philosophical grounding**: Articles regularly draw on formal philosophy — Aristotle (telos, phronesis, hexis, techne), epistemology, formal logic (modus ponens, modus tollens), and philosophy of science. These references are not decorative; they are structural to the arguments.
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- **Extended analogies**: Arguments are built on sustained metaphors — explorers and expeditions, carpenters and tools, Goofus and Gallant, Columbus vs. Lewis and Clark. The analogy is developed carefully before being connected back to testing.
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- **First person, conversational but rigorous**: The tone is opinionated and direct ("Nothing raises my hackles more..."), self-deprecating where appropriate ("Before I puff myself up too much..."), and intellectually honest about counterarguments.
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- **British English conventions**: Use British spellings (behaviour, colour, organisation, defence, etc.).
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- **Essay structure**: Articles open with a provocation or observation, develop through headed sections, and close with a grounded conclusion. They do not end with generic summary paragraphs or calls to action.
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- **Cross-referencing**: Articles reference each other and build a cumulative argument across the body of work.
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## How Claude Can Help
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### Brainstorming and Ideation
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- Suggest connections between testing concepts and ideas from other disciplines (philosophy, science, history, mathematics) that could seed new articles.
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- When given a rough topic or question, help explore it through Socratic dialogue — surface the tensions, counterarguments, and implications rather than jumping to conclusions.
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- Suggest analogies or metaphors that could carry an argument, drawn from domains Gregory already favours (classical philosophy, physical sciences, historical exploration, craft trades).
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### Research Assistance
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- Look up and summarise academic or technical sources relevant to a topic under exploration.
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- Verify claims, quotations, and attributions before they go into a draft.
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- Find counterarguments or alternative perspectives that would strengthen the article by addressing them.
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### Drafting Support
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- Help expand outline notes (like those in `articles/drafts/`) into fuller prose, but always as raw material for Gregory to rewrite in his own voice — never as finished text to publish directly.
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- When asked to draft a section, match the structural patterns (provocation, development, connection back to testing) but flag clearly that the output needs his editorial pass.
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- Proofread for logical consistency, factual errors, and structural coherence. Do not "fix" stylistic choices or voice.
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### What Claude Should NOT Do
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- Do not generate complete articles and present them as ready to publish. Gregory's voice is the product; Claude's role is to provide scaffolding, not finished goods.
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- Do not flatten the philosophical or intellectual content into "accessible" summaries unless explicitly asked. The audience is technical colleagues who can handle the complexity.
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- Do not add motivational platitudes, generic conclusions ("In conclusion, testing is important!"), or marketing-style calls to action.
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- Do not suggest topics that are purely trend-chasing (e.g., "Top 10 AI Testing Tools in 2026"). The blog is reflective and argumentative, not listicle-driven.
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- Do not sanitise opinions. The articles take positions and defend them. Hedging everything into bland neutrality defeats the purpose.
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## Repository Conventions
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- Published articles go in `articles/published/`
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- Work-in-progress goes in `articles/drafts/`
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- Images and assets are organised by type under `assets/` (clipart, general, memes)
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- Articles are written in Markdown with inline image references and hyperlinks
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### Front-matter Schema
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All published articles carry YAML front-matter:
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```yaml
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---
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title: "Article Title"
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date: YYYY-MM-DD # original publication date
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topics: [topic-a, topic-b]
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related:
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- other-article.md # relative filenames within articles/published/
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abstract: >
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Two or three sentences capturing the argument, not just the topic.
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---
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```
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- **topics** use a controlled but organically growing vocabulary: `epistemology`, `exploratory-testing`, `agile`, `bdd`, `reasoning`, `formal-logic`, `automation`, `philosophy`, `craft`, `resources`
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- **related** lists articles that this one explicitly builds on or cites; use filenames, not paths
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- **abstract** describes the argument or thesis, not just the subject area
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- Draft articles do not require front-matter until published
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